


Allurement of Amity

by The_Gay_Cousin



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV), wayhaught - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Bullying, F/F, Fluff, Hogwarts AU, Light Angst, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-06
Updated: 2016-11-15
Packaged: 2018-07-22 00:05:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 27
Words: 42,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7410538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Gay_Cousin/pseuds/The_Gay_Cousin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hogwarts Wayhaught AU - Waverly begins her sixth year at Hogwarts as there is a new student transferring from Canada, but the pair of them manage to get on the wrong side of Bobo Del Ray. Super Slow Burn.</p><p>Calling this one complete for now, might pick it up again when the new season is out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is my first attempt at writing fanfic, but I do welcome any constructive criticism! Also I'm aware that some of the houses that I've sorted some of the secondary characters into make absolutely zero sense, but it was for convenience because I'm a lazy sellout okay :D Also I 100% am open to suggestions for a better title. I have no beta, I just skim read over it so I've probably missed mistakes.

Chapter 1

Waverly made her way down the Hogwarts Express, glancing into compartments for any familiar faces. She brightened at the sight of Steph and Chrissy sat with Steph’s boyfriend and a couple of older students. 

“Hi guys, mind if I join?” Waverly slid the door open with a smile and five sets of eyes swivelled round to land on her. She gave a shy little wave at the two guys who she didn’t know, and  started to step into the cabin when Steph cut her off.

“Oh hi Waves, it’s just it’s kinda full in here at the moment. Where’s Champ- why don’t you sit with him?” Her tone was sweet, but her smile was clearly forced and her eyes glared daggers. Waverly felt her heart fall and looked helplessly at Chrissy, who unhappily shifted in her seat and dropped her gaze. Waverly faltered for a moment, but it was clear from Steph’s face that she wasn't going to give in. 

“Oh… sure, yeah, I just wanted to say hi I guess, I hope you all had a nice summer.” She quickly left the compartment, blinking at the sudden burning in her eyes. She started to make her way back towards the compartment she’d been sharing with Champ and his mates, but when she got there she could see they were still being raucously loud. The arm wrestling match that had prompted her to go look for her friends had now escalated into actual wrestling in the narrow space between the seats. Champ had pinned one of the other guys and the two muggleborn spectators were shouting words and phrases that would have been nonsense to her if Champ hadn’t made her watch many, many hours of WWE on his dad’s television that summer. The fifth Hufflepuff watching was a guy named Johnson who she knew was a pureblood, and she hid a smile at the mildly alarmed look on his face.

“Babe, I’m winning!” Champ spotted her as she tried to sneak past and bellowed through the glass. Waverly smiled even as she winced internally and gave him a double thumbs up before mouthing “I’ll be back soon”. She cringed an apology at the group of seventh year Slytherins who were glaring at the source of the noise and hurried away. She felt relieved when she spotted her sister’s dark curls in a cabin just a bit further down the train. She slid into the cabin and sat next to Dolls, who nodded curtly at her.

“Hey guys, am I uh… interrupting?” Dolls, Doc and Wynonna were each holding some playing cards and it seemed to be a little intense. Dolls was leaning back into the seats looking smug, Wynonna was glaring at Dolls, occasionally flicking back to the cards in her hand, and Doc was looking at the cards in confusion, one of which he had dropped, rubbing them between his finger and thumb whilst he muttered under his breath. 

“Hey Sis.” Wynonna replied without breaking her death stare with Dolls. “Just in the process of annihilating Dolls at this muggle game.” Dolls’ smirk said otherwise. 

“Poker.” He mumbled, before slapping his cards down on the windowsill. “Two kings, let’s see what you’ve got, Earp.” 

“ _Damn it_.” She threw her jack and ace on the floor in annoyance. Dolls let out a low chuckle, which was a pretty rare occurrence for him, and gathered up his winnings from the seat between Wynonna and Doc. It was mostly just Bertie Botts’ Every Flavour Beans, but there were a couple of knuts and sickles mixed in too. Apparently neither of them cared that Doc was technically playing. 

“How do you they get the parchment so shiny?” A particularly sheltered pureblood, Doc often couldn’t wrap his head around the simplest of muggle things. Although Wynonna and Waverly were also purebloods they had at least grown up near a muggle city, which Wynonna had made her way around plenty as a teenager, getting into all sorts of trouble, and Champ had introduced Waverly into a lot of muggle technology, which she found fascinating. Dolls himself was muggleborn and was constantly moaning that his gadgets didn’t work at Hogwarts. Unconcerned that nobody was bothering to answer his question, Doc turned to look at Waverly. 

“And to what do we owe your charming presence on this fine evening?” Waverly smiled at the odd formality of Doc’s speech that even after four years she hadn’t got used to, but it didn’t do much to help the unhappy swirling in her stomach that had followed her reunion with her friends. 

“Yeah Waves, why aren’t you with that numbskull boyfriend of yours, or whatshername and Chrissy?” Wynonna leaned across to swipe a handful of Dolls’ newly won jelly beans and dished out half to Waverly. Despite the nonchalance in her tone Waverly could see that Wynonna had picked up on her unhappiness and she forced a smile.

“Oh you know, Champ is being, well, a guy, and Steph is being… Steph.” She tried to brush past the topic because she didn’t want Wynonna to know that it was technically her fault that her friends hated her. She had hoped they would get over it during the summer but apparently Steph at least was determined to hate her and her sister for longer. No such luck though, Wynona squinted at her for a few long seconds before scowling and slapping her knee. 

“Don’t tell me that bitch still has a broom up her ass about the final!” Waverly shrugged and inspect her handful of beans, trying to decide which ones looked safe to eat. “I barely even hit the guy!” And by ‘barely even hit the guy’ she actually meant ‘tackled Steph’s boyfriend off his broomstick and broke his nose by repeatedly smashing her fist into his face’. 

“Well I’d say you went a darn sight further than that.” Doc chuckled and even Dolls cracked a smile. Wynonna rolled her eyes and threw a jelly bean in the air to catch in her mouth. It bounced off her nose and rolled across the floor. 

“Yeah well, the little weasel deserved it.” That much was debatable. It had been the quidditch cup final between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, and things had become heated. The last straw for Wynonna had been when the Ravenclaw chaser in question called Dolls a mudblood, to which Wynonna decided that physical violence was a suitable response. Whilst Waverly herself would have been tempted to smack the boy, Wynonna had perhaps gone a bit too far. She was sent off and the ravenclaw boy couldn’t finish the match so both teams were a player down, and Gryffindor just about won the match. Although Waverly had been a bit upset that her own house hadn’t won the season, she was proud of her sister’s performance- excluding that one little bit- and she was happy that her sister’s team had won the cup at least. So when Steph started mouthing off Wynonna in front of Waverly, she couldn’t just let her speak that way and they’d had a verbal pow-wow of their own. Steph had turned most of the Ravenclaws against her but she hadn’t been too concerned because it was just before the school year ended so everyone would probably forget about it over the summer. Judging from Chrissy’s reaction though it seemed like Steph was still determined to queen bee everyone into hating her still. She sighed unhappily and chewed on a dubious looking green bean that turned out to be avocado flavour. 

“Aww come on Sis, you know I’m sorry…” Waverly raised her eyebrow in disbelief and Wynonna carried on with a grin. “… Sorry she’s such a stuck up cow.” Waverly snorted but couldn’t help the real smile that tugged at her lips. Wynonna spotted it too and jumped on her with a cry of success. She grabbed Waverly in a bear hug and pecked a kiss on her forehead. “You’re welcome in the Gryffindor common room any time you want, you know that right?” She whispered in her ear and Waverly nodded, swallowing the lump in her throat.

“Gerroff me.” She heaved her sister off her, and darted into Wynonna’s vacated window seat instead so she could look out for Hogwarts. It was dark and raindrops scattered the glass but you could usually spot the castle’s towers once you got nearer to Hogsmeade. 

“We should be arriving soon, you should get changed into those ugly ass blue robes of yours.” Wynonna teased and Waverly smiled.

“Speak for yourself, I mean who honestly thought red and yellow looked good together.” 

“It’s gold, not yellow! And that would be… Mr. Gryffindor.” Wynonna retorted indignantly. 

“You forgot his name didn’t you?” Dolls interrupted, rolling his eyes at his friend’s blunder. This of course started a fresh bout of squabbling between the three friends and Waverly tuned them out. When she first started school she had worried Wynonna would be disappointed if she was sorted into any house but Gryffindor. But when the sorting hat had shouted Ravenclaw, after deliberating long and hard between Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, her sister had immediately ran over to the Ravenclaw table and noogied her little sister, shouting “I knew it ya little brain box!” above the applause. They still saw plenty of each other around school and Waverly had snuck into the Gryffindor common room more than a few times in the past. The Ravenclaws could be a little obnoxious and were less accommodating to her sister even before she kicked their butts at quidditch. But the Gryiffindors were fine with her so long as she didn’t go “full know-it-all” as Dolls called it. 

When they finally arrived Waverly left her sister to go fetch her luggage from Champ’s train cabin and as they were getting off the train she noticed a girl around her own age struggling with her trunk and a wire cat basket. The sheet had slipped off and the cat inside was hissing at the rain and noise around them. A boy tried to put the sheet back over the basket and the cat inside tried to scratch him through the wires.

“Sorry, she doesn’t really like boys.” The girl smiled apologetically as she secured the sheet. Waverly thought she heard an American accent, but with all the noise and bustle she could be mistaken. 

“Who’s that?” She muttered to Champ. She didn’t know everyone in school by name but she was pretty sure she at least knew their faces. Champ just shrugged though and heaved all their stuff into the horseless drawn carriages. Waverly stopped to pet one of the thestrals before climbing up after him, taking one last look back at the tall red head who was now chatting amicably with the other boy. 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

 

Waverly dumped her satchel on the floor at an empty desk with a sigh and slid into the seat. It was only the third day of term and she was exhausted already. N.E.W.Ts were turning out to be just as difficult as she had been warned and she was regretting her decision to continue all of her fifth year subjects. Wynonna had suggested she drop one or two classes so she could focus her energy on just the subjects she’d need for her chosen career path, only problem was that she hadn’t decided what that would be yet. And she’d figured that was just Wynonna being Wynonna. She was fairly certain the only reason her sister had come back for seventh year at all was for quidditch. The common room drama hadn’t helped either. Apparently the Ravenclaws had not cooled off much over the summer and she was still a bit of an outcast in her own house, although they were less hostile than last year. As a result she’d spent most of her time in the library but unable to focus on her homework so she was falling behind already. 

Today was her first potions class of the year and she didn’t even have the energy to be excited for it. The class filled up around her and she was painfully aware when Steph and Chrissy ignored the empty seats next to her and sat across the room instead. When class was due to start the room was almost full, but there were three empty seats beside her and it was exceedingly obvious. This has happened in two of her other classes, but the rest she had shared with either Gryffindor or had been too full to have empty seats. But it was still just as humiliating in the third class as it had been in the first. It turned out that Hufflepuff and Slytherin were just as annoyed with Wynonna for ruining Ravenclaw’s chances to win the quidditch final, as Gryffindor wins it almost every year. Word apparently hadn’t gotten around about the Mudblood name calling so people thought Wynonna’s behaviour was highly unjustified. Ravenclaw were a bit of an underdog in recent years, so it had been a surprise that last year they had been having such a good season, people couldn’t help but root for them. With Wynonna making them a chaser down Gryffindor had managed to score enough goals to win even with Ravenclaw catching the snitch. 

Professor Nedely had them making a simple sleeping draught today. Well, he called it simple, it was actually a very long and complicated process that involved boiling and chilling the potion every time an ingredient was added. Luckily they had a three hour period to complete the potion in, so it was doable as long as they worked quickly and made no mistakes. By the end of class there were only a few students who were actually still making the potion. The rest had made mistakes here or there and since a single mistake ruined the entire draught they had decided it wasn’t worth handing anything in, and they didn’t have time to start over. So whilst Waverly frantically stewed the powdered goat’s horn, glancing nervously at the clock, the rest of the class sat around chatting or doing work for other classes. The bell rang for lunch and the rest of the class piled out, the only other people with potions still on the go had either managed to finish or decided food topped grades and handed in what they’d managed so far. Waverly only had one last ingredient to add so when Nadely came round to check her progress he agreed that she could stay behind to finish whilst he graded some papers. 

Waverly was just adding the last ingredient when Nadely packed up to leave, but as he was about to head out a student knocked on the door and asked to see him. She ignored the student because if she added just an _ounce_ too much pickled lacewing her simple sleeping draught would become a permanent sleeping draught of the deadly toxic kind. And that would mean a T grade. If that was even a thing, she had never gotten below an E so she wouldn’t know. But brewing poison was _probably_ an instant failure. She vaguely heard the student apologising for missing the lesson, something about a meeting with the headmaster, but she tuned them out. They were a lot easier to tune out than Wynonna and her friends. 

The potions door swung shut with a bang as she was taking her freshly chilled, _perfect_ , sleeping draught over to the very small collection of finished draughts at the back of the classroom. 

“Shoot!” Waverly wailed as her hand slipped on the cauldron and half of it slopped down her shirt. She set the cauldron down quickly and swiped at her sopping wet front in dismay.

“And here I thought I missed potions class, not a wet t-shirt competition.” 

Waverly jumped and whirled around in surprise. She had been so engrossed in perfecting her potion she had thought the classroom empty. 

“You alright?” The tall girl she had noticed at the train station was grinning at her from across the room where she was filling out a form. Waverly suddenly felt very flustered and was grateful her robes were black, though they were clinging to her front unpleasantly.

“Oh, yes, no I’m fine. Just a bit jumpy is all. I’m such a klutz!” She was pretty sure her face was beetroot purple, but she was less sure that it was because of her clumsiness than it was because of the way that the girl was smiling at her.  

“Here.” The girl crossed the room and handed her a smelly rag to clean up with. “I’ve been meaning to introduce myself, I’m Nicole. Nicole Haught.” 

“Th-thanks.” Waverly had to clear her throat, her mouth was suddenly very dry. Nicole was even taller up close. She dabbed at her front with the cloth but it wasn’t doing much, just making her robes smellier. “I’m-“

“Waverly Earp. You’re a popular girl around here.” The girl’s eyes were earnest and her smile genuine, so Waverly had a feeling that this Nicole hadn’t heard of Waverly or her sister’s infamy just yet. Waverly tried to ignore the sinking sensation that this girl, the one person who had been nice to her, even if it was only for two minutes, would probably soon turn against her like everyone else. 

However she was distracted by the thought by the unpleasant sensation caused by the sleeping draught, which had now seeped through her robes and t shirt and was starting to irritate her skin. Perhaps she hadn't made it as perfectly as she thought. 

“Sorry could you just, uh,” she motioned to cover her eyes. “Perhaps it’s just in my head but I’m starting to itch from this potion, maybe I’m allergic.” 

“Oh, sure!” Nicole spun around, humming something beneath her breath as she did so. Waverly quickly tried to peel her robes off, glad that she wore a t shirt and trousers beneath the robes. 

“Ow.” She muttered as something snagged her hair- her necklace maybe? She tried to tug the robes over her head but her hair caught again. And shoot, now her arms were stuck, awkwardly folded over her head. Frick, frick, frick on a stick. Oh this was going to be embarrassing. “Um, Nicole? I’m uh stuck. I’m stuck. Could you uhh?” She awkwardly waited, arms and robes over her head unable to see. Hoping very much that this girl was not about to walk off and leave her stuck like this. She heard a light chuckle and knew her complexion had reached beetroot again. But soft hands quickly untangled her and she let out a breath as the robes were peeled off her and she was again face to face with Nicole. 

“Thanks…” She trailed off as she noticed Nicole’s eyes flick down to her chest for a nanosecond before fixing on her eyes and turning pink. Waverly looked down and realised her t shirt had come off with the robes. She quickly gathered the wet robe in front of her chest, mortified. She babbled in an attempt to diffuse the awkwardness. “Good thing you’re not some guy right, or this would be reeeeaally awkward…” She trailed off as the intensity of the taller girl’s gaze hit her. The air was thick between them, and the aniseed smell from the potion clung to them both. “I owe you.” 

“Don’t sweat it. I’ll see you around, Waverly Earp.” Nicole drawled with a smile and swept out of the classroom leaving Waverly feeling slightly dazed. 


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

 

The next morning Waverly had potions again, just an hour this time. She sat back in the same seat she had yesterday, and watched the class fill up around her again. The three seats beside her remained empty again. Not that anyone would change their seats after the first class but it just seemed so silly to leave these three seats on the second row empty. She sighed and started rooting through her bag for her quill and ink. Waverly heard a small thump and saw a satchel dropped on the floor next to hers, she straightened up to see Nicole sliding into the seat next to hers with a smile. 

“Hope you don’t mind that I sit here, everywhere else is taken.” Nicole grinned at her and Waverly forgot how to form words for a moment. “Well, I mean I could sit at the end of the bench if you’d prefer, I just didn’t think you’d need three empty seats to yourself?” 

“Oh no, please sit here, that’s totally fine!” She was babbling again. But who could blame her when Nicole was smiling at her like that. Did the girl _ever_ frown? “So, you’re new around here?” “Yeah, my dad had to move to London for a promotion, so I transferred here to be a bit nearer to the family.” 

“From America?” Nicole winced playfully, shaking her head.

“I’m going to pretend you didn’t just ask that. From Canada.” Well, that explained the accent. 

“Don’t they have floo powder in Canada?” 

“Well yeah, of course we do.” Nicole laughed, but it was not a malicious laugh, not as Steph had cackled at her this morning when she’d dropped her books. It wasn’t even that funny. What was funny though was the strained look on Chrissy’s face when she’d tried to look amused and contrite at the same time. “But I can’t really nip home every weekend, so it’ll save the poor owls flying back and forth across the Atlantic. Besides, who wouldn’t jump at the chance to check out those sexy British accents?” Nicole’s eyes twinkled and Waverly was first to look away.

“So how’s your timetable looking? I didn’t see you in any of my other classes and I’m taking quite a few.” 

“Well I _was_ in your Ancient Runes class, but apparently you didn’t notice me sitting in the row behind you.” 

“Oh.” Waverly tucked her hair behind her ear, blushing. “Sorry, Ancient Runes is my favourite class. And History of Magic, Charms, Care of Magic Creatures… well most of the subjects I took are my favourite really.”

“So you’re basically a nerd then?” Nicole remarked, and she grinned back at the red head and plucked the timetable from her hands.

“Basically, yeah. But you could’ve told that from the fact that I’m in Ravenclaw. I’m guessing you’re in Hufflepuff?” The new girl had no tie or house colours on her robes, but Waverly only had potions with Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, plus she hadn’t seen the girl in her dorm. “I never saw you get sorted at the feast with the first years.” 

“Yeah, that’s why I missed Potions yesterday, I had to meet with the Principal and do some assessments because my Canadian transcript means nothing over here. They did ask if I wanted to do it at the start of year with the first years, but I chickened out because I’d have looked ridiculous towering over those little pipsqueaks.” Waverly snorted at the thought, most of the first years probably only came up to Nicole’s waist. She looked back at the timetable.

“Okay so you’ve got Charms with us Ravenclaws, two double periods on two consecutive days, yikes. Let’s see, DADA and Herbology with Gryffindor, should be interesting at the very least, hmm, Transfiguration and Arithmacy with Slytherin, oh and we’ve got Care of Magical Creatures together too. I didn’t see you in that class either?”

“Oh, yeah, I got lost and I figured since I’d missed half the class, I might as well miss it all. Those staircases are annoying. Even if I had a map I’d still probably end up in the Astronomy tower instead of the dungeons.” 

“You didn’t miss anything interesting, it was just a theory lesson so you can catch up before tomorrow’s class. And I can help with the pesky staircases too, here wait a moment.” Waverly dug into her bag and pulled out a highly crumpled piece of parchment. “I made it a couple years ago, I did a bunch of research on the school and managed to dig out the original blueprints, then went through about fifteen books worth of construction changes that the castle has gone through. So it shows the most up to date floor plan that I think has ever existed, but the real kicker is that I managed to charm it so that when the staircases move, look,” She pointed to one of the staircase symbols that was sliding over the page, “It moves to its new position on the map. They all follow a sequence that isn’t exactly linear but I spent ages recording each cycle so the map knows where they all go.” Nicole was silent for a moment as she studied the map in awe, then turned to Waverly with a serious expression.

“So basically what I’m hearing here… is that you’re actually a _giant_ nerd.” Waverly smiled at what she was going to take as a compliment. 

“Exactly. There’s more too. I charmed it so that if you tap the map at one spot, and then another, like so-“ She demonstrated with her wand, tapping on their classroom in the dungeons and the astronomy tower. “It finds the quickest path from A to B, including all the secret passageways that a lot of people still haven’t found. And when the staircases change it changes the route for you.” 

“Oh, cool, it’s like google maps!” 

“What?” 

“Never mind, it’s a muggle thing. This is seriously brilliant though.” Waverly felt her stomach flutter with the praise. She had never shown anyone the map before, except her sister who she’d made a copy because she was constantly late for her lessons. 

“You’re welcome to borrow it for as long as you like. I know most of these routes myself anyway so I don’t use it too much.” 

“Thanks, Waverly. I guess we’re even for yesterday then.” Nicole winked at her and she was saved from answering by Professor Nadely beginning the lesson. 

They didn’t talk much more during class, which was mostly a lecture from Nadely about the correct way to brew a sleeping draught- which probably would have been more useful _before_ they’d attempted to make it themselves. By the time Nadely finished his monotonous droning even Waverly was bored, and she noticed that Nicole had completely glazed over. She subtly nudged the other girl as the students packed up their belongings.

“Ughhhh,” Nicole groaned and rubbed her eyes. “Damn it, I _was_ trying to pay attention there. I really don’t like Potions.” Waverly grimaced in sympathy. 

“Why are you still taking it?” 

Nicole sighed. “I’ll need to take it at N.E.W.T level if I want to be an Auror.” They shouldered their satchels and joined the queue of students filing out of the classroom.

“You want to be an Auror? That’s pretty cool, my sister’s friend is going to apply for that. My sister wanted to do that too, but well, her grades aren’t amazing. She has a lot of street smarts but academia isn’t her strong suit. She likes to say that I got all the brains and she got all the brawn in the family, so at least we make a good team.” 

“My dad is a police officer- muggle law enforcement. I was always planning on enrolling in the police academy as soon as I was done with school. Then I found out I was a witch so I figured this was near enough the same thing, right?” 

“Right. So what’ve you got next? I’ve got Muggle Studies.” 

“Ask them about google maps. It’s an internet thing. And ummm, Defence Against the Dark Arts, should wake me up a bit at least, eh?” 

“Definitely. Plus you have it with Gryffindor so I bet you at least one of those numbskulls hurts themselves trying to show off.” 

They were just leaving the dungeons when Waverly was almost knocked over by something loud and very excited. 

“Hey Babe!” Champ slung his arm round her neck, pulling her into something that somewhat resembled a hug but was definitely closer to a headlock. 

“Hi Champ. What’re you doing down here?” 

“I missed you babe, and I had to tell you the good news!” Champ pulled her aside from the stream of students and start kissing her vigourously. As his tongue was trying to access her throat Waverly, conscious of her audience, pulled away from Champ. Determined not to let her go, he held onto her hips and sucked on her neck between kisses.

“Easy there, Champ.” Embarrassed, Waverly pushed him more firmly away. “Champ, this is Nicole.” Nicole, looking possibly even more embarrassed than Waverly felt, raised her eyebrows and waved. 

“Oh yeah, she’s in my house.” Champ returned to stroking Waverly’s face and trying to kiss her. She shot Nicole a look which she hoped said ‘sorry, I’ll catch up with you later’ and the other girl nodded curtly and left, auburn braid swinging behind her. 


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

 

After lunch Waverly got to Charms class early, eager to choose a good seat now that she knew she might have somebody to sit next to. Provided Nicole hadn’t been scared off by Champ’s love for PDA of course. 

“So your boyfriend seems nice…” Waverly jumped as Nicole slid into the seat next to her, visibly holding back her laughter. 

“He’s sweet. He just gets a bit over eager sometimes.” She defended him quickly, because despite his methods he really did care for her in his own way. “You know how boyfriends can be, I suppose.”

“So what was his good news?” 

“Ah, they’ve announced that tryouts for the quidditch house teams are next weekend. He’s the Hufflepuff keeper and half their players last year were in seventh year last season so he’s excited to see what the new team will look like.” 

“Ahh okay. You play much quidditch?” 

“Who me? Oohhh no, no I enjoy the sport much more as a spectator. You?” Nicole shrugged nonchalantly. 

“I’ve played some, yeah. Actually I play muggle sports too, I was on the local soccer team which was fun. Have you heard of that?”

“Oh yeah, football, right? Champ made me watch some of it. Can’t say that I’m a huge fan.”

“Ahh but I’m guessing you’ve never seen girls play it.” Nicole winked at her and Waverly felt the heat rise in her face. “So your sister, Wynonna, she’s older than you?” 

“Yeah, she’s seventh year now. She only came back to delay having to go out into the real working world for a year, that and to see more of her friends and play quidditch. I’d be surprised if she even attends her lessons.” She smiled fondly, her sister was not a fan of structured learning environments. 

“What position does she play?” 

“She’s a beater. You wouldn’t guess it from her build because she’s pretty scrawny, but give her a bat and she can do some serious damage with a bludger. Or just with the bat. Or her fist.” 

“I see. I think I’ve heard some of the stories actually. Your sister was the one who beat the crap out of some kid last year for scoring a goal?” 

“No!” Waverly looked horrified for a moment before backtracking. “Well, she _did_ beat the crap outta somebody, but it was because he called her friend a Mudblood. That bit doesn’t seem to get round as much as the rest of the story. And she only hit him a few times really.”

“Oh I see. I hadn’t heard that bit, sorry. You know how it is with stories and the way they get round.” 

“Mhmm hmmm. That’s actually the reason I’m a bit of a social pariah at the moment.” 

“I did wonder why you seem to be surrounded by empty seats in your lessons. It’s not like you smell bad or anything, although that sleeping draught perfume you were wearing yesterday was a _little_ strong.” 

Waverly rolled her eyes in embarrassment. 

“No, the ass that Wynonna kicked belonged to the boyfriend of my former best friend Steph, who happens to have quite a lot of sway with the masses, and long story short everyone is scared to talk to me. I’m surprised you haven’t been warned about my wicked sister already.” Nicole shrugged sadly.

“People aren’t exactly clamouring to speak to me either. The girls in my year are polite and all, but they already have their friends that they’ve spent the last five years with.” 

Waverly frowned sympathetically. She hadn’t even considered that Nicole might be going through a similar experience to herself, being an outsider in her own house. 

“Well, I’ll be your friend, Nicole. If you can put up with my excessive nerdiness, that is.” 

Nicole brightened with a wide, dorky smile.

“You’re on.” 

 


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

 

“Make sure you get good seats, Babe, because I am going to smash these tryouts today!” Champ smirked, even cockier than usual- which was a pretty impressive feat in it’s own right. Waverly couldn’t help but smile at his ridiculous swagger as they headed into the great hall for breakfast. 

“Will do, Champ. I’ll catch up with you down at the pitch, you go ahead and start carbo-loading, or whatever it is you call it.” She kissed him quickly and then gave him a gentle push towards his friends, who were already chanting his name at the Hufflepuff table. She could do without the noise and there would likely be an abundance of pushing- something that teenage guys seemed so fond of, particularly when sports were involved. Instead she sat down at the end of the Ravenclaw table and started neatly cutting the crusts off her toast. 

“Thanks Waves.” Wynonna plucked a slice of toast from her plate and ruffled her sister’s hair playfully. 

“What are you even doing awake at 8am on a Saturday morning?” Waverly asked, simply grabbing another slice of toast to replace her stolen one. Wynonna normally didn’t surface on weekends till at least the afternoon, and even then she was usually hungover.

“Quidditch tryouts, duh!” 

“But _Gryffindor’s_ tryouts are tomorrow…?” Waverly frowned up at her sister in confusion. Wynonna winked and headed over to join Doc and Dolls at the Gryffindor table, calling over her shoulder as she did.

“Yeah but I won’t get the chance to heckle anybody at the Gryffindor tryouts!” 

Waverly shook her head in disbelief, biting back a smile. She was nearly finished with her toast when Nicole dropped into the seat opposite her and began immediately piling her plate.

“Hey Waverly.” 

“Umm hey… You know this is the Ravenclaw table, right?” 

“Mmm-hmm.” Nicole mumbled as she shovelled porridge into her mouth. 

“And you’re in Hufflepuff…” Waverly prompted. A couple seats further down some Ravenclaw third years were frowning at Nicole, clearly wanting to say something but recognising that they were too low on the school hierarchy to question a sixth year directly. Nicole stopped chewing long enough to guzzle down a glass of orange juice and wiped her mouth with the back of her sleeve.

“Meh, it’s too far away and I’m running late. Besides, you’re not sitting at the Hufflepuff table.”

“Why is everybody acting so crazy this morning?” Waverly muttered, chewing on her toast pensively. The Ravenclaws were now glaring at Waverly and it was making her uncomfortable. “You know, people don’t really sit at the other tables.” 

Nicole paused her feasting, looking around wide-eyed as if she’d only just realised that everyone sat with their own houses, even though it was the end of the second week. 

“Is it against the rules?” She frowned worriedly, noticing the third years who were now determinedly staring at their plates. 

“Well I don’t think there’s an official _rule_ per se. It’s just what everyone does.” Nicole relaxed visibly, and began piling fruit into a napkin.

“Well if it’s not against the rules then screw what everyone else does, eh?” 

Waverly had to chuckle at that.

“You sound a lot like my sister. Except that she wouldn’t give a damn if it was against the rules, that would be even more incentive in fact.” 

“Your sister sounds great.” Nicole smiled, then turned serious. “But I get it, I’ll see you around some time. Like I said, I’m running late and I’ve got places to be, people to see.” She grabbed her napkin of fruit and detangled herself from the wooden bench. 

“Bye Nicole.” Waverly called after her friend, who was already half running for the doors. She smiled at the warm feeling in her stomach, that Nicole had cared enough about what Waverly felt to not sit at the Ravenclaw table, despite clearly not giving a crap about what anyone else thought. It was a nice feeling. 

Although it was half way through September the sun was still strong as Waverly strolled down to the quidditch pitch. The pitch was empty when she arrived, the students trying out were probably still in a meeting with the captains before trials, so Waverly spread a blanket on the grass and stretched out, enjoying the sun’s rays soaking into her skin. It wasn’t long before she saw movement as the Ravenclaw captain strutted out on the pitch with the case of quidditch balls. Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw were sharing the pitch for trials and there were plans for a few short games later one, once they’d thinned the herd of eager students a bit. The rest of the hopeful quidditch players filed out of the changing rooms and began milling around the pitch. The Huflepuff captain, Rogers, was shaking her head sympathetically at two tiny first years who began trudging dejectedly back up to the castle. By this point more spectators had gathered, including Wynonna and her pals who were lounging on the other side of the pitch. Champ spotted Waverly and jogged over.

“So, you checked out who your competition is for keeper yet?” 

“Yeah, not too many trying out this year to be honest,” Champ scoffed, “two third years so I can beat them easily, Davies from our year, those sixth years Doyle and Amir are trying out again but they were shit last year, Nissar is probably the best guy trying out, maybe Black or Stevens will be the only people I need to beat. Oh and that new girl you hang out with is trying out too.”

“Nicole?” Waverly scanned the crowd for the familiar auburn braid before she saw her clapping a young Hufflepuff on the shoulder in a friendly manner. “She never mentioned that she was going to be trying out.” 

“I doubt she’s any good, she wasn’t even on time to the meeting so she can’t take it too seriously.” Champ shrugged, unconcerned. “Plus she’s a girl.”

“Your captain is a girl.” Waverly pointed out, irked. Champ wrinkled his nose.

“Yeah but Rogers is different. Besides she’s not a keeper. Keepers have to be tall.”

“Nicole is literally taller than you.” Waverly knew her hackles were up and wasn't completely sure it was just about the sexism. Champ waved her complaint away.

“You know what I mean.” She didn’t, but she had no intention of starting an argument that might throw him off his game before try outs. Who knows how long he’d sulk if he thought she could possibly be the reason he didn’t get on the team.

“I think they’re starting. Good luck.” Was all she said instead. Champ blew her a kiss and jogged off across the pitch to line up with the prospective keepers. Nicole stood beside Amir, the only other girl trying out for keeper, and as Waverly looked over Nicole grinned nervously, wriggling her fingertips in a quick wave. Waverly smiled back with a quick thumbs up and the other girl’s grin grew wider, though her anxiety was still evident as she twisted the end of her braid. Champ caught the exchange and scowled at Waverly, who felt a prickle of guilt in her stomach. She should be encouraging Champ, not his competition. She saw him mutter something to his friend Davies, who twisted to look at Nicole and sniggered. A few of the others were also trying not to laugh and looking across at Nicole, who held herself rigid and stared straight ahead, her cheeks flushed scarlet. Amir crossed her arms over her chest and regarded the boys with disdain. Champ could be childish and petty when he didn’t get his way so Waverly blew him a kiss which he pretended to catch, instantly cheering him up. She looked back at Nicole, whose gaze was now fixed on her feet, and she felt worse. 

 


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

 

Rogers kicked off the trials for the Hufflepuffs, whilst the Ravenclaws sat out for the first round whilst they worked some drills. Wynonna bellowed something across to Waverly, and even with her foghorn voice she couldn’t make out what her sister had said, but the wild beckoning gesture that accompanied the shout was pretty explanatory. Waverly gathered up her belongings and walked around the pitch to Wynonna and her friends, ducking as a second year would-be chaser whizzed overhead and crashed into one of the stands. Everybody paused for a moment until he staggered to his feet and waved in their general direction, then play continued whilst the Ravenclaw captain flew over to check he was really okay. 

“Nice one Bradleys, next time try aiming for the goal!” Wynonna shouted with a cackle as a sixth year threw the quaffle about thirty feet wide of the hoop. 

“You weren’t kidding about the heckling then, I see.” Waverly observed as she plopped down onto the grass beside her sibling. 

“Why else do you think I’m here, Waves?” 

“I don’t know.” Waverly shrugged defensively. “Maybe you were here to scout out the competition, see what Gryffindor’s newbies would be up against this year?” 

“Pshh, it’s 9am Wave, I don’t care _that_ much about quidditch.” Wynonna snorted derisively. “I do love me some heckling though.” 

The trio continued with their jeering, though in fairness they only heckled the older students, particularly those who were likely to make the team. There were plenty of highly embarrassing stunts from younger students who were less experienced, but Wynonna didn’t try to throw them off even more. Her sister might have a unique sense of morality, but she had standards. Rogers paired up the beaters and seekers to run drills together, and had the chasers try scoring against the keepers. Champ was doing pretty well and was possibly flying the best out of all the attendees, but that wasn’t too surprising as he had been the keeper for the past two years. Nicole’s nerves seemed to be getting to her, or at least something was putting her off. In the short time Waverly had known her it was clear that she was a very confident person, so it seemed odd that she would be so affected by nerves. Then again, Waverly had never seen her play before so perhaps she just wasn’t that good in general. She winced as the girl fumbled an easy save, dropping the quaffle straight into the hands of a lurking chaser who then scored. 

“Butterfingers!” Doc shouted with glee, and Nicole turned bright red. Their taunts were not the most imaginative but they got the point across. 

“You know that girl’s name, Waverly?” Dolls asked.

“Haught.” Waverly replied cautiously, unwilling to be an enabler to their antics. Wynonna smirked.

“No kidding, huh?” Waverly felt herself blush inexplicably, and focused back on the pitch. Nicole managed to save one of the shots, admittedly an easy one, but in her haste to return the ball she threw it straight at an attacking chaser, rather than one of the defenders. 

“It’s not a _haught_ potato!” Dolls yelled. By this point Nicole looked on the verge of tears. Waverly felt a flare of emotion, a mixture of guilt and protectiveness that drove her to begin berating the trio.

“You leave her alone, she’s doing great.” She snapped, her voice a little shriller than usual. “Don’t act like any of you idiots could do any better, there’s a reason none of you are keepers.” 

The three tormentors were speechless for a moment, staring at Waverly in bewilderment. 

“Okay Wave, we’re sorry.” Wynonna spoke up earnestly. She could obviously tell that there was more to it than met the eye and didn’t want to upset her sister. “We’ll lay off them a bit.” 

“Thanks.” Waverly muttered, embarrassed by her outburst. “She’s my friend, okay.” She glanced back up to the pitch and saw Nicole watching their conversation. She still looked upset but there was a hint of a smile playing around her lips and she seemed to have understood what had gone down. From that point on she played with a new energy, making far fewer mistakes and performing some pretty impressive saves. After a while Rogers called them over in a group and narrowed down the chasers from about twenty to eight, and the seven remaining keepers were whittled down to three; Champ, Nicole and Nissar. 

They set up a drill where one keeper had to defend the three hoops against five chasers who had two quaffles between them. The chasers were rotated every few minutes to ensure everyone got a chance, and the keepers had to defend the goals for fifteen minutes each. Whoever conceded the most goals would be knocked out and the remaining two would be judged in a friendly match against Ravenclaw. Champ went first, and although he had started the trials pretty strongly, he had lost a lot of his swagger by now and seemed tired. Despite not playing as well as before he still managed to defend the goals to a decent standard. Nissar went next and performed slightly worse, so Champ was safe for the last round at least. When it was Nicole’s turn, Waverly felt strangely sick. She hadn’t felt this way when Champ had played, but she supposed it was just leftover guilt from before, and she was just rooting for Nicole as the underdog and because she was the new girl at school. It would just be nice for her to have a place on the team is all. She needn’t have worried though. Whilst Champ may be slightly more skilled at individual aspects of the game - he could throw the quaffle faster and further-but with her sleight frame Nicole could turn quicker and sharper. Her real advantage though was in her ability to read the game. Even with two quaffles in play her attention to detail allowed her to analyse the chasers’ intentions and communication to prepare her defence well in advance. 

By the end of her round even Wynonna and her friends had forgotten their taunts and were cheering her on. She landed gracefully amongst the group and a couple of last year’s chasers clapped her on the back. Nearly everyone was wearing at least an expression of begrudging respect, except Champ who was looking sullen. Rogers allowed them to break whilst the Ravenclaw chasers tried out, so they could freshen up before the friendly. Nicole started heading towards Waverly, looking elated. Her face was pink, but this time it was due to exertion and her braid was falling apart, sweaty strands sticking out on end. Waverly tried to bite back her smile, she was so happy for her new friend. Then Champ marched past Nicole, knocking against her shoulder as he did. Nicole immediately swerved, altering the direction she was walking in so that all she did was walk past Waverly with a small wave, looking more subdued. Waverly chewed her lip anxiously, torn between wanting to be there for her friend who now sat alone plucking strands of glass, and to be comforting Champ who was fuming that he was being beaten. 

She spent the next hour placating her boyfriend. At first she didn’t mind, when he was berating himself for his mistakes she sympathised with him and said everything she could to convince him that he was overthinking it, focusing too much on his failures when he had so many successes during the trial too. But after a short while he had cheered up enough to start focusing on everyone else’s mistakes too. She soon grew tired of hearing him go on about how much better he was than everyone else, and her responses became more non committal. Champ was oblivious though, even when Waverly spaced out completely for several minutes. She came to and noticed Wynonna trying very hard not to laugh at the two of them. _Shut up_ , she glared at Wynonna, adding an eye roll for emphasis. Her sister simply smirked back and then suggested to Doc and Dolls they go up to the stands for a better view of the match. Champ left to join the huddle of players gathering around Rogers. The prospective team had been narrowed down to two keepers, five chasers including Rogers, three beaters and last year’s seeker who was remaining on the team because no one had come anywhere close to beating him in the initial trials. 

Waverly hurried to catch up with Wynonna as they headed up to the stands. 

“You know what I’m gonna say, sis.” Wynonna looked at her with pity. Waverly shook her head. She knew what she was going to say, but she was hoping that she wouldn’t. “You can do a lot better than Champ.” There it was.

“Yeah well, this school isn’t the biggest, there’s a pretty small dating pool.” Waverly muttered irritatedly. Her sister stopped and put her arm across the doorway to the stands to stop Waverly walking past. She held her gaze for a long moment, clearly trying to find the right words. Waverly tried to push past but Wynonna stopped her with a look. Waverly tried to diffuse what she sensed was turning into a serious moment. “And besides, I’ve known everyone here since they were little shitbag first years. I know everyone else sucks. Champ can be sweet.” 

“Wave.” She could tell she wasn’t fooling her sister. “He doesn’t value you. I just watched him have a twenty minute monologue. You could’ve sprouted horns and he wouldn’t have noticed as long as you kept nodding along with him.” She paused, and Waverly felt her eyes prickle. Wynonna tipped her chin up to look her in the eye. “Just because you feel like he’s the best option… that’s not a reason to date someone. Maybe you need to be on your own for a while, figure out who you are, what you want?” Wynonna held the serious gaze, it was starting to feel weird- Wynonna was never serious. Then she relaxed and smiled. “Besides, you haven’t known _everyone_ here since first year.” She sprang up the stairs and Waverly called after her, perplexed.

“Who haven’t I known?” Wynonna swung around the first bannister with a wink.

“Well there’s that new girl you hang around with.” 

Waverly snorted and Wynonna cackled with laughter as she jogged up the stairs. Maybe her sister was onto something though, she’d been dating Champ for so long, she couldn’t even remember what it felt like to be single. To not be… responsible… for someone else’s feelings. Champ was sweet and he cared about her, but sometimes she was just tired of constantly having to soothe his ego. Sometimes she wanted to talk about how society’s changing views of witchcraft over the centuries had shaped the wizarding population into what it was today. Or about how they deciphered a new runic language in the Mediterranean, or about Minerva McGonagall’s latest autobiography, or how magizoologists discovered their first complete basilisk skeleton in Britain for centuries- barring the one rumoured to be decomposing in Hogwarts’ sewer system of course. She’d even like talking about Muggle history and mythology. Most of the time they spent together involved making out, and when they did talk it was about sports or the stuff that Champ did for fun with his friends. Champ wasn’t very interested in history or runic languages or magizoology. 

 


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

 

“I can’t believe that new girl got into the team over me.” Champ ground out for probably the fifth time since the announcement. They were walking up to the castle together, Champ still in his quidditch robes.

“I’m sorry you didn’t get on the team.” She was sorry. She pushed down the happiness for Nicole, she could congratulate her friend later, right now though Champ needed her. She slid her arm around his waist and leaned into him. 

“She probably only got on the team because she’s a _girl_.” He spat maliciously, and Waverly withdrew her slight embrace. “Last year people were saying we had too many guys on the team so she was just put on to fill some kind of quota.” Waverly counted to ten in her head so that she wouldn’t say what she really wanted to say. “She doesn’t even take it seriously, she was late this morning.” 

They reached the castle and Waverly paused, not sure which direction they’d be heading in.

“Do you want to go get cleaned up and we could meet up after dinner?” She suggested, wanting to head to the library to start working on her Arithmacy homework. 

“Nah, let’s go hang out somewhere for a bit. I don’t want to go back to Hufflepuff just yet.” Waverly couldn’t fault him for that, and since he seemed to have cooled off a bit she agreed and led him to one of the less used common areas. Traditionally students had only been able to hang out in their own common rooms or somewhere like the library, but in the library you couldn’t talk above a whisper, if at all, and because the house common rooms were kept a secret from other houses you couldn’t be with friends/partners from other houses. The only other options they’d had was to sit out on the grounds which was fine in the summer but not so fun the rest of the year, or to find an empty classroom or broom closet that had been left unlocked. However about a decade ago students had complained and a few of the classrooms throughout the castle had been converted into lounge areas. 

The first one they tried was full, with so many people leaving their homework till Sunday as usual, the library would be quiet but it was also the other side of the castle, so they tried their luck with another and were surprised to see that it was almost empty. The only other occupants were a couple of fifth year guys cozied up in the corner. Champ flopped down on a battered sofa and pouted, reaching for Waverly who was dawdling in front of the couch. She relented and he pulled her down next to him. He started kissing her but she pulled away from him. She was self conscious  of the two guys in the same room, they were being couplesy but they weren’t making out. She didn’t really like kissing in front of people. 

“I thought you wanted to talk?” She tried to divert him instead but he whined at her.

“Babe, I just feel really bad at the moment. You know what would make me feel better?” He pulled her close and started kissing her again. She tried to ignore the sixth years, and the fact that he smelled of body odour and muddy grass. After a few minutes she broke the kiss off again, glancing at her watch. It was coming up to four, the quidditch trials had taking up most of the day despite the early start. Too early to claim she needed dinner, they’d had sandwiches down at the quidditch pitch after the match whilst they waited for the captains to pick their teams. 

“I have quite a bit of homework to catch up on this weekend.”

“It’s the second week? Surely you can’t have _that_ much.” 

“Oh you know how I hate to fall behind.” Waverly smiled self deprecatingly. Champ kissed her neck a few more times. 

“Come on, you’ve had a long week. Let’s unwind a little.” He pulled on her leg, swinging her over to straddle his lap. She squirmed away, trying to slide back to the sofa. She risked a glance at the fifth years, who were both looking disdainfully in their direction. 

“I’m not really in the mood.” She mumbled, and to her relief Champ let her sink back into the sofa. He slumped back himself and grumbled. 

“I can’t believe I’m not going to play quidditch this year.” 

“Well, you can still play.” She reasoned, but he scowled.

“That doesn’t count. It’s not proper quidditch.” 

“At least you got to play on the team the last two years. And Rogers said you were the reserve keeper.” 

“That’s not good enough. I was way better than that Haught girl. Did you see when she threw the ball straight to the attackers? What kind of idiot does that.” 

“She wasn’t that bad.” Waverly protested. 

“She’s probably only on the team to meet guys. Not that it’s going to help her, none of our year are interested in her, none of the Hufflepuffs even want to hang out with her, I don’t know why you do. One of the beaters has a thing for a tall girls, though she’s not even that pretty so he must be desperate.” 

“ _Shut up_!” She shrilled, finally snapping. The couple in the corner were now staring outright. Waverly leapt to her feet and stood before Champ. “I am sorry that you’re not on the team Champ, but talking shit about Nicole isn’t going to help. She was picked and you weren’t. That’s all there is to it, so quit it with all your misogynistic bullshit. Nicole was better than you, I’m sorry but she was and everyone could see it. Stop belittling her achievement to soothe your own damn ego. Instead, work hard this year, keep on training and try again next year.” Champ squared his jaw and glared at her, but she turned on her heel and marched to the common room door. She paused to call over her shoulder. “And take a shower, you stink.”

Waverly strode towards the Ravenclaw tower, going as fast as her short legs could carry her. She needed some time to cool off, and she needed to do her damn Arithmacy homework. She wasn’t sure what her current relationship status was, but she wasn’t going to waste her time and energy worrying about that right now. She and Champ fought occasionally, it was no big deal. Sometimes they even broke up, but they always got back together within a week or two. This fight wasn’t even that bad, he’d probably only sulk for a couple hours and then they’d kiss and make up. She picked up her bag from her dorm and headed to the library to get cracking on some work before dinner. 

Waverly managed to finish the Arithmacy work and even get started on her Transfiguration essay before dinner. When her stomach started gurgling audibly in the sparsely populated library she decided to take a break and head down to dinner. She still had to write another two feet on the theory of Vanishing Spells before her next class where they’d be starting the practical element, which she’d do after dinner. She also had an essay for Muggle Studies and worksheets for Ancient Runes and Care of Magical Creatures, but she’d have time to do those tomorrow. 

As she entered the great hall she started to make her way towards Steph and Chrissy out of habit, but Steph’s cool stare reminded her to keep walking until she reached an empty spot on the table. She sat down with a sigh and dished up a portion of lasagne, idly scanning the hall as she did. The Slytherins sat behind her, Hufflepuff were the next table along and Gryffindor were furthest away. She made out Wynonna and Doc eating in the corner, no sign of Dolls, and Champ was hunched over a plate at the far end of the Hufflepuff table with his friends. He seemed a little more subdued than usual, but still appeared to be participating in what was no-doubt banter with his friends. She noticed Nicole enter the hall, her hair freshly washed and already plaited into the usual neat french braid as it dried. There was a definite bounce to her stride tonight, and for a moment Waverly half expected her to come and sit with her again as she did at breakfast. She hadn’t seen Nicole in the dining hall for the entire first two weeks barring today, as she normally ate very early on mornings and late at night to fit around her extra studying. She’d also spent a lot of lunches in the library recently, to avoid the loneliness of sitting alone on a crowded table. Nicole however didn’t even notice her, she was hailed over to the Hufflepuff table by Rogers and the rest of the quidditch team. One of Champ’s friends Johnson, a muscular pureblood wizard, had made the team for the first time as a beater and was sitting with the team rather than his mates. He scooted over and eagerly patted the bench beside him for Nicole to sit. She took the seat, which was almost directly opposite Waverly, and started piling her plate. Waverly was surprised to feel a minuscule stab of disappointment that Nicole didn’t try to sit with her, which was absurd because she’d literally told her that morning _not_ to sit with her. She then spent the rest of her meal glancing over to Nicole’s group, hoping to make eye contact but mostly just watching her friend enjoy herself with the rest of the team. Waverly supposed that she should be happy Nicole was making friends, she had spoken about not really mixing with her Hufflepuff year group. She’d just be a little happier about it if she was not so lonely herself. 

She finished her drink and picked up her bag, looking one final time over to the Hufflepuff table but Nicole was talking animatedly with Johnson and didn’t see her stand up. She sighed and headed over to Champ instead to ask him to talk. He agreed and they wandered out to the grounds. They weren’t technically meant to be out after dark but there were no teachers around to stop them. She had every intention of apologising but as they walked she thought about why she was going to apologise. She hadn’t really done anything wrong. She was only apologising because she had no friends and it was entirely possible that even Nicole would leave her now that she had her quidditch team. But Wynonna was right, loneliness wasn’t a good reason to be with someone, and if she was honest she didn’t even enjoy her time that much with Champ. They’d been having problems for a while because they were just too different, and whilst she was prepared to take on Champ’s interests- his quidditch and WWE and various other things she’d invested her time in, he wasn’t willing to do the same for hers. 

“We’re done, Champ.” 

 


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

 

Waverly trudged down to Care of Magical Creatures, early for class as always. Today though it was less her eagerness for learning and more the fact that she couldn’t sleep. She was so tired, both physically and emotionally, but there was no point laying in bed staring at the ceiling, so instead here she was, nearly half an hour early for class. Even the professor hadn’t turned up at this point so she sat on a log at the edge of the forest where they met for practical lessons and started checking over the worksheet on Bowtruckles they’d been assigned that weekend.

“Hey.” Waverly jumped at the soft voice and looked up, shielding her eyes against the sun. She was surprised to see Nicole stood a few feet away from her, hands thrust deeply into her robe pockets.

“You’re here early, I guess that map is working for you.” 

“Yeah, I didn’t see you at breakfast and it seemed unlikely you were running later than I was, so I came straight down instead.” 

“Couldn’t sleep. Congratz on getting on the quidditch team, you never told me you were amazing at quidditch.” She was genuinely happy for her friends but after the weekend she’d had, it was hard to convey that emotion in her voice and Nicole looked unsure of how to respond. 

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I was trying out for keeper and… well… I didn’t want to upset you or make it weird because Champ’s your boyfriend.” 

“Not anymore.” Waverly muttered and Nicole’s face immediately filled with sympathy. 

“I’m so sorry, what happened? Was it about the quidditch trials?” 

“Don’t be. We’ve had our problems for a while now, the trials were just the final straw.” Nicole sat down on the log next to her and gently bumped her shoulder with her own. 

“Still, I can see you’re upset. Just remember that I’m here for you, anytime you need.” 

“You’re not gonna be too busy with your new quidditch friends?” Waverly meant it as a joke, but it came out a bit heavier than intended. Nicole tilted her head, eyebrow raised at the jealousy.

“I’d rather hang out with you than the team. I mean except for scheduled practices of course, because I don’t want to get kicked off the team.” She winked and Waverly felt herself cheer up instantly. “They’re being nice to me and that’s awesome, but they’re more like acquaintances than actual friends. I didn’t see you at all on Sunday, I was going to ask if you’d had a nice weekend but I guess I know what the answer to that is.” 

“I spent most of Sunday in the library, but on the plus side I’ve done all my homework and made notes on my next few week’s worth of class.” 

“Of course you did.” Nicole smiled, biting her lip. “Did you even break to eat? I didn’t see you in the great hall at all.”

“You eat at such weird times, I never usually see you in there.” 

“Ahh there’s actually a reason for that.” Nicole winced in embarrassment. “I didn’t go to the great hall at all for the first two weeks. That breakfast was the first time.”

“Why on earth would you do that?” Waverly laughed. “What did you even eat?” 

“Ughhh I brought food with me, but there’s only so long that you can live on coconut granola bars and dried fruit.” She had turned bright red, but she was smiling still so Waverly teased further. 

“So _that’s_ why you ate half of Ravenclaw’s food on Saturday morning.” Nicole laughed and rubbed her neck in embarrassment. 

“I guess I was a little starved of actual nutrition. I avoided the great hall because I didn’t have anyone to sit with. But before the trials I knew I’d need a proper breakfast and then I saw you sitting alone so I thought I’d just sit with you. Seemed pointless for us to both be losers.” 

“Well at least you’re not a loser now. And I mean it, I’m really happy you made the team. You played really well, better than Champ, and I know you’re going to kick ass.”

“Thanks.” Nicole beamed. “Hey did you see that piece in the Daily Prophet yesterday about the Bowtruckle population they found in Romania?” 

“No, I didn’t get chance to read the paper, I didn’t know Romania had Bowtruckles?” 

“It was only a small piece, but yeah they’re not native to Romania. They think the population was founded by a few individuals that escaped from exotic pet smugglers, but because it was such a small group that started the population, they’ve nearly all inherited this rare genetic condition which turns their tree bark dark red. It’s like a form of albinism but instead of producing no pigments they overproduce carotenoid pigments… I’m not going too fast am I?” 

“No, no, I find founding effects and population bottlenecks fascinating.” Waverly breathed out, excited to have found somebody who seemed to be as interested in Magizoology as she was. “We don’t cover that kind of content in lessons, but I do a lot of research with muggle biology books  and on the internet over school holidays. It’s hard to find the information that applies exactly to magical creatures but you can extrapolate most of the general rules.”

“I have a few books that you could borrow.” Nicole was so full of energy as she spoke, Waverly found it refreshing. “Magizoology is a bigger field for wizards in Canada, but I suppose that’s because our wildlife is a bit more exciting than it is here.”

“Okay we have more than just flobberworms, but I do get your point.” Waverly conceded with a chuckle.

“There’s a few websites I could show you too, that publish magical scientific journals. I just need to figure out how to get my laptop to work.” 

“Good luck with that.” Waverly winced. “Has nobody told you that muggle technology doesn’t work here? All the anti-muggle spells interferes somehow, I don’t know how it works.” 

“We had that at my old school too, but we found a way round it a few years ago. The loss of internet is a powerful motivator to kids like myself who were raised on muggle technology.”

“It is a useful tool for research.” 

“Well there’s that but mostly I miss shitposting and memes.” She laughed ruefully, but Waverly was looking puzzled. “Never mind, it’s hard to explain. I’ll show you some time though. At least you can use the internet though, in Canada most of the purebloods can’t even comprehend muggle tech.” 

“In fairness some of them here are like that too. My sister’s friend Doc is one of those um, sheltered, purebloods who probably couldn’t even use a toaster.”

They chatted for a little longer until the rest of the class turned up then paired up for the practical assignment, which was to produce annotated sketches of the bowtruckles Professor Lovegood had rounded up. It barely counted as a practical assignment because they could have easily just sketched from a textbook but Waverly wasn’t complaining, she was tired and appreciated the light lesson, plus it was easy to talk with Nicole. They each finished their sketch long before the lesson ended, so they spent the rest of the session cooing over the bowtruckles, which were strangely cute in their own way, and pushing dead woodlice through the wire cages. Nicole found a particularly tiny specimen and beckoned Waverly over.

“This one’s you!” She giggled and Waverly rolled her eyes in exasperation. 

“You better watch yourself, I’m small but fierce.” The bowtruckle hissed at them and Nicole laughed.

“I rest my case.” 

 


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

 

The second week of October had the students almost buzzing with excitement as it marked the first quidditch match of the year as well as a trip to Hogsmeade. Hufflepuff were playing Slytherin and both houses were eager to see how their new teams would fare. Nicole had been working hard, with quidditch practices nearly every day for the past few weeks, so Waverly hadn’t seen her much outside of lessons. Thankfully Steph had finally relaxed her reign of terror on the Ravenclaws and her house had forgotten its grudge against her. They were on good terms with her  which she appreciated, but she also wasn’t about to forget their treatment of her so she wasn’t exactly rushing back to her besties. But they were friendly again, which she was grateful for or she wasn’t sure how she’d have made it through the school term. Friday afternoon saw a double Charms period with Hufflepuff, and she sat with Nicole, Steph and Chrissy practicing silencing charms. 

“ _Silencio_.” Nicole muttered, and prodded her belligerently croaking bullfrog. The amphibian regarded her balefully and croaked deliberately. 

“Almost.” Steph smirked, and Chrissy bit back a smile. Since Waverly had reunited with her old friends they’d been less than welcoming to Nicole. They had expected Waverly to dump her new friend and things would go back to normal, but she had no intention of dropping Nicole. Nicole simply rolled her eyes at the comment. They were never too overt with their snide comments, but they irked Waverly nonetheless and she was constantly nagging them to stop. 

“Steph’s just pissed because her boyfriend forgot their anniversary.” Waverly remarked lightly, and Steph glared at her. She leaned across to Nicole, gently laying a hand on her wrist to adjust the red head’s grip on her wand. “Here, like so.” Nicole blushed and tried again, grinning when the frog was cut off mid-croak. 

“Thanks Wave, I’m just a bit stressed I guess.” 

“Nervous about the match?” Waverly asked sympathetically and Nicole nodded. 

“Don’t be. You’re gonna kill it. And then we can all go to Hogsmeade together on Sunday, right?” She looked around at her three friends, who all nodded but looked a little less than enthusiastic at the idea. Steph and Chrissy exchanged a glance and deliberately looked at Nicole, who looked uncomfortable. Waverly sighed and went back to scribbling notes on Silencing charms. 

The next morning Waverly headed down to breakfast early in hopes of wishing Nicole well, but there was no sign of any of the Hufflepuff team in the great hall, so they must have gone down to the pitch already. She wandered down later that morning with Wynonna, Doc and Dolls and although they were a little late getting to the pitch, Wynonna managed to _persuade_ some Gryffindor first years to switch their seats so they could have a better view. As usual the majority of the school was in the stands, even teachers were sporting house flags. The two teams filed out onto the pitch and lined up to shake hands. Even from that high up in the stands Waverly could see that Nicole was nervous. Her face was pale and as a hulking Slytherin beater shook her hand firmly the poor girl winced. Waverly stared intensely down at her friend, willing her to look up and see her. 

The players mounted their broom and she could see Nicole scanning the audience. They made eye contact, Waverly grinning like a loon and giving her a double thumbs up. Nicole smiled and straightened her shoulders, focusing back on the quaffle as Professor Spinnet, ex professional chaser and now the school flying instructor, gestured for the players to get into position. The snitch was released, golden wings fluttering as it briefly circled the players before disappearing. The bludgers too went whizzing away from the players and haphazardly flew around the pitch. The quaffle was tossed into the air and the pitch erupted in a burst of energy. Nicole immediately flew over to the Hufflepuff goals and drifted between the hoops as she followed the gameplay. 

It was apparent that both teams weren’t 100% familiar with their new players. They both played well but there was a slight lack of chemistry between the Hufflepuff chasers, and on several occasions the Slytherin beaters nearly collided whilst trying to go for the same bludger. The Slytherin chasers were on top form though, and Nicole had her work cut out for her defending the goals. Despite Slytherin’s reputation for fouls it was starting out as a relatively clean game with only one penalty awarded in the first forty minutes of play. By this point Hufflepuff were losing, but only by a few goals which was almost exclusively down to the tremendous effort on Nicole’s behalf. Slytherin were awarded a penalty for excessive elbowing by a Hufflepuff chaser and play was stopped. Rogers could be seen chiding the player for giving away a penalty. The Slytherin captain took the penalty, and despite an impressive feint Nicole managed to just barely deflect the quaffle from the hoop. The stands erupted with fresh cheers for the keeper, who was looking more and more elated with each save she made. This energised the team and they managed to steal the lead from Slytherin, leading by seven goals after another twenty minutes of play. It was a good lead, but they’d still lose if Slytherin caught the snitch. 

Nicole made another spectacular save and tossed the ball back to Rogers who retaliated with vigour to score. Waverly cheered and fist pumped as Nicole focused on her for a moment and the tall keeper did a quick loop the loop to celebrate. _Show off_ , Waverly mouthed at her, but the other girl just grinned and focused back on the game. The Slytherin captain called a quick time out and when play resumed the Slytherins were playing fiercer than ever. Nicole conceded a few more goals but was still making far many more saves. Whilst gameplay continued the two beaters and Slytherin captain huddled briefly, and then the beaters broke away and flew over to the Hufflepuff half. Nicole eyed them nervously, still trying to keep an eye on the game but suspicious of the beaters. They picked their moment well, and each of them belted a bludger in her direction. Their aim was excellent, and though she managed to duck one of them, the second hit her in the face. Waverly squeaked involuntarily, jumping out of her seat with every muscle in her body tensed in concern for her friend. The bludger knocked her off her broom but she managed to hold onto the handle weakly. Johnson, who was nearest, savagely hit a bludger at one of the beaters and darted over to Nicole, whose head began to loll. He caught her just as her hand relaxed from the broom, and between him and Rogers they carried her down to the grass, her broom falling with a clatter beneath them. 

“She’s okay, Wave. She’s fine.” Wynonna rubbed her sister’s shoulder reassuringly and she forced her body to relax, realising she was biting her fist in suspense. She shuddered a deep breath and nodded, sitting back down, but still craned her head to check on her friend. Medics ran over to her and assessed the injury. Play was halted for five minutes whilst she was carried off on a stretcher, still unconscious. There were no substitutions in quidditch, even with a player down due to injury, so Hufflepuff had to adapt their play to be defensive. It was nothing short of miraculous that the Hufflepuff seeker caught the snitch seven minutes later, leaving the score at 210 - 180 to Hufflepuff. Their house was ecstatic, and it was contagious to everyone else too - barring Slytherin of course. But Waverly couldn't quite shake the image of Nicole being knocked from her broom from goal height. She excused herself and jogged up to the Hospital Wing. 

When she arrived Madame Pomfrey, the extremely old and wizened matron, was leaning over Nicole, who was sprawled out on the hospital bed. Waverly stopped in the doorway, not wanting to get in the way. Nicole’s cheek was already swelling and there was a cut above her left eye where the skin had split. 

“ _Episkey_.” She murmured, and the skin healed instantly, leaving a faint red line where the cut had marked her.

“Is she okay?” Waverly asked from the doorway, her voice coming out fainter than intended. 

“Oh she’ll be fine, sweetie. I can’t do much about the swelling unfortunately, but a bit of ice should do just fine though. I just wanted to make sure the noggin is functioning correctly and then she’s free to go whenever she pleases. I’ve seen much worse, don’t you worry.” 

Nicole’s right leg was dangling over the side of the bed and the tiny old lady heaved it onto the mattress.

“Oof, I’m getting too old for this, I tell you.” Waverly smiled at the grumpy muttering.

“What’s the worst you’ve seen from a quidditch match here?” 

“Well there was this one idiot that managed to lose all the bones in his arm.” 

“How does that happen in a game of _quidditch_?” She remarked in surprise, and the old matron chuckled.

“Well I suppose it was more down to the idiot that decided to try and fix a broken arm with no medical training.” Nicole opened her eyes slowly, blinking against the brightness. She looked around in confusion, eyes unfocused and Madam Pomfrey seized the opportunity to peel back her eyelids and check her pupillary response. 

“Hello dear, you’re alright. Do you know what your name is sweetie?”

“Ni…cole.” She groaned out, seeming more like a question than a statement. 

“Good, good. Now tell me Nicole, what is the last thing that you remember?” 

The redhead closed her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. Her hair was escaping from its strict braid and was plastered to her scalp with dried blood from the head wound. She looked around again and focused on Waverly, still hugging the doorframe. 

“Waverly Earp, smiling at me from across the pitch.” She mumbled, one corner of her mouth pulled up into a faint, lopsided smile.

“I’ll leave you to your examination. I’ll be back soon.” Waverly ducked out quickly, feeling awkward. The rest of the Hufflepuff team had made it up to the Hospital Wing by now to congratulate their fallen teammate and she briefly updated them as she left to take a breather. 

An hour later she returned, figuring that was enough time for Madam Pomfrey to do her thing and for the quidditch team to leave. She walked straight into the ward and halted with surprise at the scene before her. Johnson sat beside Nicole’s bed still, talking softly. But it was the way he tenderly held her hand on the bed that caused Waverly to pull up short. Neither of them noticed her as she stood for several long heartbeats before backing slowly out of the room. She felt peculiar but she wasn’t sure why. Perhaps it was just the discomfort of intruding on such a private moment. She headed to the library to do her Potions assignment instead. 

 


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

 

On Sunday morning Waverly overslept for what was probably the first time ever. Steph and Chrissy were already up and dressed as she leapt out of bed.

“Crap.” She looked at the clock, it was nearly ten a.m., she was due to meet Nicole with Steph and Chrissy at ten to go into Hogsmeade. “Hey, can you guys go down to the great hall and tell Nicole I’ll be down in like, fifteen minutes tops please?” She quickly braided her hair to hide the flyaway frizz from her pillow and grabbed her toiletry bag and make up. Steph and Chrissy agreed and said they’d meet her at the exit to the castle as soon as she was done. 

By the time she skidded into the Great Hall she was only ten minutes late. She’d left a bit of a mess in the bathroom as she’d been rushing so much that she’d dropped her toiletry bag and the shampoo bottle had cracked. Coconut and cherry scented shampoo oozed out of the bottle but she’d decided to just leave the mess for later. A quick scan of the room ascertained that her friends had already gone to the meeting point, so she bundled some toast into a napkin and trotted off to the thestral carriages. 

“Where’s Nicole?” She asked in confusion as she approached Steph and Chrissy. 

“She left already.” Chrissy replied, quite obviously trying not to look too pleased. “Said she was going with some guy, she’ll meet us in the Three Broomsticks this afternoon and walk back.” 

Waverly swallowed her disappointment, but followed them into a nearby carriage with only a final glance back at the castle. She must be meeting that Johnson boy from the quidditch team. They had seemed pretty close in the Hospital Wing the previous day, perhaps they were dating. She dismissed the thought, Nicole would’ve told her, wouldn’t she? She chewed on her lip, completely tuned out off Steph and Chrissy’s conversation as she thought about it. Maybe today was their first date? That seemed more likely, but she was still upset that her friend would just ditch her like that for some guy. Then again she had prioritised Champ’s needs over Nicole’s many times when they first met… but that was when they’d first met. They were way closer now. It really was rather rude of Nicole. 

“Are you even listening, Waverly?” She blinked, startled out of her reverie by Steph’s needling voice. 

“Sorry, what did you say?” 

“I asked how Champ’s doing. I’ve never known you two to be apart for so long, haven’t you guys been dating since like, second year?” 

“I don’t know…” Waverly shrugged unhappily. “I think it might be for good this time.” Steph pouted, frowning at her disapprovingly.

“He’s a really sweet guy Waverly. Plus he loves you so much, you should give him another chance.” 

“I don’t think that I want to.” Waverly mumbled, feeling awkward and pressured under their twin gazes. 

“But he loves you. Did you see how heartbroken he was when you dumped him? You’re never going to find someone who loves you like he does.” Steph needled, then her voice turned dismissive. “Besides, it’s not like you’ve got guys lining up to date you.” 

Waverly felt her hackles rise at the comment.

“And what’s that supposed to mean, Steph?” Her friend widened her eyes innocently, backing off just a fraction.

“Well it’s just that… well you’re an Earp.” Chrissy as usual had slunk away from the conflict and was avoiding Waverly’s eyes. The carriage drew into Hogsmeade station and Waverly was climbing out before it even fully stopped.

“Whatever. Either of you want to go to Scrivenshafts?” They both shook their heads and there was a long, awkward pause whilst they each waited for the other party to give in. 

“Okay… I guess I’ll go on my own then.” Waverly bit out, annoyed with the two of them. 

“It’s cold, how about we go to the Three Broomsticks for some butter beer, also we were thinking of going to Madam Puddifoot’s this afternoon, after all the couples have cleared off of course.” 

“I’ll meet you there in about half an hour then?” They agreed and parted ways, Waverly trudging down the street with her shoulders hunched against the cold wind that had sprung up. She picked up a couple of inkwells from Scrivenshafts and treated herself to a few new quills, including one high quality eagle owl feather quill which she was already excited to try out. Nicole would be calling her a nerd right now. She was sure that if her friend had turned up she would’ve come with her to the boring shops she didn’t want to go to, rather than just sitting in a pub all morning. After she’d run her errands for school supplies she met up with Steph and Chrissy and they eventually left the pub to see more of Hogsmeade. By sixth year they’d been so many times it was less about sight seeing and more about spending money, so they went straight to Honeydukes to stock up on sweets and then went to the bookshop, Tomes and Scrolls. 

As the afternoon passed by Waverly was growing bored. She hadn’t enjoyed the day out with her friends, probably due to the little argument they’d had that morning. They decided to go to Madam Puddifoots for some tea, and Steph had agreed to meet her boyfriend Stuart there. He was waiting for them outside the tea room, so Chrissy and Waverly had to endure several awkward minutes of face sucking as they reunited after their long morning apart. Waverly caught Chrissy’s eye and pulled a face behind Steph’s back, to which they both struggled to silence their laughter. Finally, they stepped into the pink and frothy café and found a table.

Waverly was unbuttoning her coat when she stopped short, noticing a familiar braid across the room. Nicole was sat across a table from Johnson, who was leaning across to hold her hands. She felt a flare of annoyance at the sight of them together. So her friend really had ditched her for some guy. Nicole noticed her and turned bright pink, and an expression Waverly couldn’t interpret clouded her face. For a moment she thought it was hurt, but perhaps it was just embarrassment at having been seen out with Johnson. 

“Hey! Earth to Waverly?” Chrissy waved a hand in front of Waverly’s face, who wrenched her gaze away from Nicole, realising she’d been staring. “You going to order anything or are you just going to sit there like a gorm?” 

“Tea please.” She forced a smile and made herself focus on the conversation, determined not to look over to Johnson and Nicole. The addition of Stuart to the gang didn’t do much to improve Waverly’s day. Although Steph had let her grudge for Waverly dissipate, albeit for a few snide remarks, Stuart still very much disliked Wynonna and held a grudge against Waverly which manifested in a cool disinterest in everything she said. The few moments he stopped canoodling with Steph he spent moving the conversation on from whatever Waverly had tried to talk about. She soon gave up and just sipped her tea whilst the others talked. Her mind drifted to thoughts of the afternoon she’d spent last Sunday with Nicole doing homework in the library. Even that had been funner than this day. She had heaved a huge grimy tome onto their desk and a huge cloud of dust had swirled up right into Nicole’s face. The poor girl couldn’t stop sneezing, and she had the funniest sneezes. They were so tiny and pathetic like a hamster’s sneeze it set Waverly off giggling, which in turn had Nicole wheezing with laughter. The incident ended with the librarian Madam Hubble angrily shooing the pair of shrieking teenagers from the library as they struggled to collect all their belongings together and carry them, still doubled over with mirth. 

Waverly was distracted by movement in her peripheral vision, and saw Johnson leaning across the small table to kiss Nicole. It was a short but tender kiss, and as he drew away Waverly could see that Nicole’s face matched her hair, but she was smiling nervously. She looked away from her friend and turned to Chrissy to ask her about the transfiguration homework. They were still talking about the vanishing spells when the pair in the corner stood up and left, Johnson leading Nicole by the hand. 

Shortly after, Waverly excused herself to go to Gladrags before they had to return to the castle. Winter was coming, and they could be pretty harsh on the feet given that they lived in a stone castle with no central heating. A good pair of slippers was crucial for avoiding frostbite. She spent a long time deliberating over whether she should buy a pair of thick fluffy boots with pom poms or not. They were cute and looked extremely warm and comfy, but they were also pricey and she’d spent a fair bit of money today already. She eventually decided to buy them, but to forgo the new pair of funky socks she was going to buy as well. Gladrags sold all kinds of cool patterned socks, and lots of them had magical elements to them; socks that never lost their fresh meadow scent, or socks that changed colour or lit up as you stepped. There was even a pair that she was eyeing up that left little clouds of rainbow glitter as you stepped. It was magical glitter so of course it faded after a short time, so there was no concern about the mess it might create. She was at the counter paying the cashier when she heard a familiar voice.

“Look, these ones scream when they get too smelly.” Nicole was grinning and holding up a pair of ugly mustard yellow socks to show Johnson. 

“I’ll buy them for you if you want.” 

“No, that’s okay. I think I’d prefer to keep any lapses in foot hygiene a secret.” She smiled and continued browsing, immediately drawn to the glitter socks Waverly had considered. “These are cool.” 

“They certainly wouldn’t be out of place at a gay pride parade.” He made the comment in an offhand way, with no malice in his voice, but Nicole immediately put the socks back on the shelf, looking flustered. Before Waverly had time to ponder this reaction she was given her change and handed the shoe box. She ducked out of the shop and headed back to meet her friends at the tea room. 

 


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

 

Nicole was already sat down at the desk they shared for Care of Magical Creatures theory lessons when Waverly got to class, running slightly later than usual. She dropped into the seat beside her friend without a word, stony faced. Nicole glanced across at her to presumably say hello, but upon seeing her face she squared her jaw and turned away. That was how they spend the rest of the lesson, and all the other lessons they shared that day. Waverly missed her friend, but she was very much determined not to be the first to crack. It got to the point where she wasn’t even sure what she was mad about, or whether it was worth keeping up this grudge over one afternoon where she was ditched. And to be honest, it’s not like Nicole left her completely alone, she knew she’d be going with Steph and Chrissy. 

By the end of Ancient Runes, the last lesson of the day, Waverly had talked herself out of her anger and was ready to apologise, but as soon as the professor ended class, Nicole was out of her seat and half way to the door, books still half hanging out of her bag. 

“Nicole, wait.” If she heard Waverly, she ignored her, and was gone from the classroom before Waverly could pack away her books and quills. She cursed as she struggled to fit her Ancient Runes book alongside all the other books in her bag, giving up and just shoving the book as hard as she could into the bag till the seams were nearly splitting. She jogged out of the classroom, determined to catch up with Nicole before she disappeared off to the Hufflepuff dorm, as although she had been to the Gryffindor common room and had a pretty good idea where Slytherin’s was, she was absolutely clueless about Hufflepuff’s location. Even Champ had outright refused to take her anywhere near their common rooms; Hufflepuffs were fiercely proud of their house, possibly because they got a fair bit of teasing from the rest of the school. But come on, their emblem is a _badger_. 

“Nicole!” Waverly shouted as she just caught sight of a ginger plait whipping around the corner. She rounded the same corner and nearly collided with her friend, who she had not expected to stop. “Sorry.” Waverly squeaked, despite the fact that she was the one that was nearly knocked over. Nicole steadied her, but immediately let go and crossed her arms over her chest. She met Waverly’s gaze for a moment and she was horrified to see that the taller girl’s large brown eyes were glistening with tears. “Are you okay?” 

“What is your problem?” Nicole exclaimed, her voice so full of hurt and frustration that Waverly took a step back, confused. Okay, she had been childish today but she didn’t think she’d done that much wrong. Nicole dropped her eyes to the floor, and Waverly hesitated, suddenly aware that the corridor was full of students bustling past them. She gently took Nicole’s wrist and led her through a passageway behind a portrait to one of the common rooms. At this time of day they were generally deserted, and today was no different. 

“Nicole…” She trailed off, waiting for her friend to look at her. “I’m sorry.” She paused, letting the words sink in before she continued, Nicole nodded, and her lower lip trembled just barely. “I’ve been a real jerk to you today, and you didn’t deserve that. Please can we be friends again?” Nicole didn’t answer for several long seconds, and Waverly felt like her heart was going to explode. 

“I don’t know, Waverly. I just feel like I come in second constantly.” She felt herself getting flustered and worried and she couldn’t string together a coherent thought, let alone verbalise it. 

“I’m sorry. I know… I’ve been a shitty friend. When we first met I put Champ’s needs before yours and… and at first I could justify that because he was my boyfriend and I hardly knew you. But I did more than just put his needs before yours. I was… cruel. Or, I sat back and let Champ say cruel things, trying to embarrass you, and that’s the same thing as me being cruel. I’ve wanted to apologise for that for weeks, but I just, I didn’t know how to say it. You never mentioned it and I hoped that meant that it didn’t hurt you but I knew that wasn’t true. And lately, even now that we’re good friends, when Steph and Chrissy let me back into their circle, I just went straight back to them. I… I knew they didn’t want to be friends with you, they don’t know you like I do. I thought maybe I could force it, because I didn’t want to choose between them and you. So even when they were making mean comments, about me but more importantly about you, and when they were trying to exclude you, I didn’t really try to stop them.” Waverly paused for breath, trying to find the words to express how she felt. Nicole’s face had softened, and she took this as a positive sign. “I guess what I’m trying to say is that, Steph and Chrissy have been my friends for five years. But last summer when we fell out I didn’t talk to them for literally months. Even when I had no friends I didn’t try to reconcile with them just for the sake of it. But now I’m friends with them again, and I’m not lonely and isolated like I was before. But today was just… awful. Anyway, I guess my point is that I couldn’t last one day without being your friend.” 

Nicole’s smile slowly spread, lighting up every inch of her face and it was breathtaking. Waverly felt her own face respond, shyly grinning back at her friend who took her hand softly and gave it a gentle squeeze. 

“I forgive you, Waverly Earp.” She loved the way Nicole would add her full name onto the end of sentences sometimes. She realised they were still holding hands and the air felt thick around her. Her satchel chose that exact moment to tear open, and her books spilled over the floor, one heavy volume hitting her foot.

“Owowowow!” Waverly wailed, hopping on one foot whilst she rubbed the other. The tension between them was instantly shattered, and Nicole chuckled as she supported Waverly with a hand on her elbow. 

“Why the heck do you have all these books on you anyway? We only had two lessons after lunch.” She knelt and started gathering up the thick textbooks, pausing as she picked up _Advanced Potion Making_. “You don’t even have Potions today!” 

“I was in the Library at lunch.” Waverly replied innocently, as if this explained everything. Nicole shook her head with a smile and heaved the pile of books in her arms. With her split bag Waverly couldn’t carry them all back to the dorm so she took the stack of books from Nicole, her small biceps bulging. 

“Let me give you a hand.” Nicole took a few of the books back and Waverly nodded appreciatively, she started to lead Nicole back towards Ravenclaw tower.

“Thanks, I’ll manage by myself once we get nearer but I don’t think my arms could take the whole journey.”

“So what was up this weekend anyway?” 

“What do you mean?” Waverly looked across, puzzled by the question. It had been Nicole that had started acting strange first, by not showing up.

“Well there must have been something wrong, you were acting really weird today.” 

“Oh… I was just upset I guess, that you dropped me the moment a guy was interested in you.” 

“What?” Nicole looked at her incredulously. 

“What?” Waverly echoed in confusion. 

“What’re you talking about?” 

“Well… I saw you and Johnson after the quidditch match, up in the hospital wing.” Nicole turned scarlet and Waverly rushed to reassure her. “And that’s perfectly okay. I support that. It’s just I was a bit hurt when you ditched me on Sunday. I was looking forward to showing you Hogsmeade. It’s a really fascinating town, there’s so much history.” Nicole stopped her rambling with a look. 

“Waverly… I didn’t ditch you for Johnson. I was waiting in the great hall for you for ages. Then Steph came over and said you were running late, and that you’d meet me in the Entrance Hall. But you never showed. It was nearly midday when Johnson saw me and asked if I wanted to go for a coffee.”

Waverly’s jaw dropped as the information clicked into place. She screwed her face up in anger.

“I am gonna kill them!” She ground out, already thinking up a number of hexes that would be perfect retribution. Nicole was looking mildly alarmed so she explained what she now realised must’ve happened. “I _was_ running late that morning, I overslept. But I asked Steph and Chrissy to tell you I’d be late and we’d meet at the _carriages_. Then when I got there they said you were going with some guy instead and would meet me later. And, well, I’d seen you with Johnson the day before so it didn’t seem utterly unfeasible.” 

“Oh.” She murmured, looking unhappy for a moment, but then she brightened and bumped Waverly’s shoulder with her own. Or she would have if it wasn’t for the height difference, so it was more of an affectionate elbow. “Well at least now I know you didn’t abandon me for your old friends.” 

“Ex-friends. I am _so_ done with them.” She bumped Nicole’s elbow back and they both grinned, walking in companionable silence for a while. Half way up a staircase the damn thing decided to move and Waverly groaned. “Ugh, this is going to add on like another ten minutes to the Ravenclaw common room. My arms ache.” 

Nicole took another book from Waverly, drowning out her protests.

“It’s fine, all this quidditch is paying off, I’m like semi-ripped already.” She winked and Waverly laughed. “I’m surprised you’re such a weakling given the amount of books you lug around on a daily basis.”

“Hey I’m not a weakling! These are just heavy books is all…” The petite brunette grumbled back, hugging the two textbooks she still had to her chest to relieve her biceps a little. “Anyway, speaking of quidditch, how long has that thing between you and Johnson been going on?” 

“Oh… well I’m not sure I’d call it much of a _thing_.” She hastily protested. 

“You were kissing!” Waverly pointed out, ignoring the strange bubbling in her stomach at the thought. 

“He came to see me after the match, said he really liked me. He’s a nice guy, and well, I’ve never had a boyfriend before so when he asked me if I wanted to go out some time I said yes. Then you were a no-show on sunday so I agreed to get coffee with him. I’m not sure if I really like him back though.” 

“Well, there’s no pressure.” She reassured Nicole, sensing the other girl’s discomfort. “Take it slow, if you’re not feeling it then don’t feel obliged to date him. Be kind but firm, and he’ll get over it. You’ll meet another guy you like.”

“Maybe…” She seemed like she was going to say more, but then went quiet. 

“Okay screw it, I’m going to take you to the Ravenclaw common room because my arms are sore and this stupid secrecy thing is very stupid. Just if you see anyone coming please turn around and walk the other way.” Waverly joked, but luckily the corridors were deserted, with the majority of students already at dinner. When they finally approached the bronze eagle knocker she said goodbye to Nicole and took the books, waiting for the willowy red head to disappear before she answered the eagle’s riddle.

 


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

 

Waverly had not said anything to Steph and Chrissy about their cruel trick on Nicole. She certainly hadn’t forgiven them, but for now she was playing dumb- just whilst she plotted her revenge. She wasn’t going to do anything too over the top, but she figured that she would end their friendship on a bang, a hilarious bang that Nicole could witness. After all, she was the one who was hurt most by them. 

On Wednesday morning as they started their three hour potions lesson Waverly filled in Nicole on her plan. Her friend was less than enthusiastic, despite her boldness around Waverly she was apparently a stickler for rules. Waverly supposed it was a product of being a cop’s daughter. She spent most of the lesson nervously twitching, but by the end of the period she was looking a little less green and nodded discretely at Waverly’s raised eyebrow. They both dawdled at the sinks, pretending to have difficulty cleaning their cauldrons whilst they kept an eye on professor Nedley. As he was head of Gryffindor he was meeting with the fifth years in his house today to discuss career options and O.W.L.s. He’d been distracted all lesson and clearly didn’t want to wait around for them whilst he went to get lunch.

“Girls I’ll be back in ten minutes, will you be alright to finish cleaning up?” They nodded innocently whilst he gathered up all his papers, already half way out the door as he told them they could leave the door unlocked. As soon as the door shut they dropped the perfectly clean cauldrons they were scrubbing, stowed their bags in the cupboard below the sink and headed over to the supply cupboard. 

“Shit.” Waverly muttered as she realised the closet was locked. She hadn’t noticed Nedley lock it, she didn’t even know it was kept locked- it was always open during lessons. All the expensive or dangerous ingredients were kept in Nedley’s office, this one just kept the simple everyday stuff like eye of newt or beetle wings. “ _Alohamora_.” She tried but she knew it was futile. She looked despairingly at Nicole, it would take Nedley about two minutes to get to the Great Hall, another two minutes back, and a few more minutes for him to prepare a plate. They might have longer if he stopped to chat or eat but he seemed in a hurry. 

“Let me try something.” Nicole stepped forward and gestured to Waverly’s hair. “Can I borrow your bobby pins?” Confused, she nodded and allowed Nicole to slide a few of the hair grips from the side of her face. The red head knelt down in front of closet and twisted the grips into different shapes, then inserted them into the keyhole. 

“What’re you doing?” 

“It’s a muggle thing, hang on…” She frowned with concentration, one clip held between her teeth as she jiggled two in the keyhole. After several tense minutes that Waverly spent nervously looking over her shoulder at the door, and Nicole muttering frustratedly, there was a tiny click. Nicole sat back on her heels and grinned excitedly as the door slid open.

“Brilliant!” Waverly smiled and helped her friend up. “Look at you, miss I-don’t-like-bending-the-rules-but-I-know-how-to-pick-locks.” Nicole blushed and looked at her feet.

“I only learnt it for fun, I’ve never actually used it on a lock that wasn’t mine before.” 

The closet was tiny so Nicole kept watch outside whilst Waverly gathered up the ingredients they’d be needing. She was struggling with the lid on a jar of eel eyes when they heard the distinct sound of a keys jingling in a trouser pocket as someone approached the classroom. They both froze, recognising the unmistakeable sound and knowing it was Nedley returning from lunch already, he was a lot faster than they’d anticipated. 

“Crap!” Waverly yanked on Nicole’s arm, pulling her into the closet and swinging the door shut behind them. She barely managed to find the light cord to turn the light off before they heard the classroom door swing open. They both held their breath as they listened intently to Nedley moving around the classroom. The closet was barely big enough for one person to stand in let alone two, so they were tightly packed together with the shelves pressing into them painfully on either side. They heard Nedley’s desk chair be pulled out, grating loudly against the stone floor. Waverly was pressed face-to-face against Nicole, although technically because of the height difference it was more like face to chin, but she was very aware of her body against Nicole’s so she tried to ease back to give her more room. However this caused the shelving unit behind her to dig sharply into her shoulder blade and she winced painfully and automatically retreated, back into Nicole’s personal space, bumping her forehead against Nicole’s nose.

“Sorry.” She breathed as she saw her friend wrinkle her nose and she could just make out her eyes watering against the pain in the gloom. To try to alleviate the situation Waverly carefully turned around so that her back was to Nicole’s chest instead. 

“Stay still.” Nicole whispered against her ear, tickling the sensitive skin. She ignored that, and tried very hard to ignore the fact that her ass was now pressed against Nicole’s pelvis. They both tensed as they heard Nedley get up but he just went into his office for a moment, then slowly strode into the classroom again, rattling his keys. Waverly tilted her head to try to listen better, wishing there was room to look through the keyhole. She heard a barely audible groan behind her and twisted enough to see Nicole wearing her I’m-about-to-sneeze face. With her back to Nicole her head more or less tucked under the tall girl’s chin, but some flyaway frizz was tickling Nicole’s nose. Waverly saw Nicole’s face scrunch up and quickly managed to contort her body so that she could press a hand over Nicole’s face. This stopped the sneeze, though she could still see that her friend’s eyes were glassy with another coming. Nedley whistled to himself in the classroom and they both froze, but distinctly heard him walk over to the classroom door and leave. After the door shut behind them they both waited silently, trying to determine if he was truly gone or if he’d just nipped into the classroom next door- he hadn’t locked the classroom behind him after all and they were pretty sure he was doing his lunchtime meetings in his office. They didn’t hear anything for well over a minute. Waverly still had her hand clamped over Nicole’s mouth and nose, but was listening so intently that she didn’t register her friend trying to shake her head away from the hand. 

“Ew.” She felt something wet against her palm as Nicole licked her hand which made her withdraw her hand, as the other girl gasped for breath.

“Shit, sorry!” She hissed as she realised she’d been half suffocating her friend. The tight surroundings didn’t help either, Nicole couldn’t get enough air into her lungs whilst they were compacted together. Waverly stumbled out of the closet and gently rubbed a hand over Nicole’s back as she caught her breath. 

“It’s okay, I’m fine- let’s get out of here before he comes back.” They grabbed their bags and walked as fast as they could without rousing suspicion until they’d left the dungeons. Nicole shook herself and giggled nervously. “I thought we were toast for a moment there. Remind me never to let you drag me into one of your crazy plans again.” 

“Hey! It wasn’t a crazy plan! I just maaaaybe overestimated how much time we’d have.” 

“You think?” Nicole laughed. “We got everything we needed, right?” 

“Yep, we are good to go.” Waverly grinned evilly and held up the baggie of various ingredients proudly. “Let’s do this.” 

 


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

 

Ravenclaw’s laundry was always delivered back to their dorm on saturday mornings, so when Waverly saw the neatly folded pile of robes on her bed she new it was time to set her plan into motion. She gathered the potion vials she and Nicole had secretly brewed during the last two weeks and set to work. Nicole couldn’t be there to keep watch so she set a perimeter alarm that would warn her if anyone was coming into the sixth year dorm. 

Waverly chuckled as she pulled on a pair of thick rubber gloves all the way up to her elbows. She pulled out every single item of clothing belonging to Steph and Chrissy that she could find and sprinkled them with her various potions. There were potions that would cause itching, turn their skin green, make their eyes swell (very mildly of course), turn their teeth grey, even one that would make their hair stand on end for hours. The potions would work just from skin contact and didn’t need to be ingested, so she soaked their clothes and then carefully put them away, then with the leftovers she sprinkled their bedding. Once satisfied with her handiwork she carefully disposed of any incriminating evidence and headed off to find Nicole. 

She wasn’t in the library nor any of their usual common rooms, and when she found a Hufflepuff to ask they said that they thought she’d gone out that morning so she layered up and headed outside. November had just arrived and the grounds were covered in a thin layer of frost which sparkled beneath the bright sun. It was quite beautiful really, and with most of the students inside away from the cold, the air was peaceful and quiet. Waverly wandered down to the lake, shielding her eyes from the glare as she looked for her friend. She thought she made out a tall, slim figure on the other side of the lake skimming stones so she headed in that direction. As she was skirting a small copse of willow trees she saw a dark haired figure storm out. She recognised Johnson, and he looked pissed. 

“Hey.” She called to him, but he just glared at her and shouldered past her. “Okay…” She changed course and weaved her way between the trees. With autumn well under way the leaves were long gone, and she soon made out Nicole sitting at the edge of the lake. She looked small and lonely, her knees drawn up to her chest and her arms wrapped around herself. If she heard Waverly approaching she didn’t acknowledge her, just stared out at the water even as Waverly sat down beside her. 

“You okay?” Waverly murmured, pretty confident she knew the answer. Nicole swallowed hard and shrugged, eyes glistening. They sat together for a while, their arms just barely touching. Nicole sniffed and Waverly saw a tear slide down her cheek. “If it makes you feel any better, the only clean clothes Steph and Chrissy have now are the clothes on their back.” 

Nicole choked out a strangled noise that was probably a laugh, but sounded a lot like a sob. She was smiling though, which Waverly took to be a good sign, so she launched into a full description of her illicit morning activities. They were both chuckling by the time she finished her tale, but as she trailed off the air turned sober again. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” Waverly asked tentatively, and Nicole sighed deeply. 

“There’s not much to talk about. We were dating what, two weeks? I just feel terrible.” 

“What happened?” 

“Nothing really. I just… I just didn’t like him the way he liked me. I really wanted to make it work though. He’s a nice guy, really nice, he’s funny and he’s not bad looking it’s just… I don’t feel it, you know? And I just wanted to feel it so badly.” Her voice broke and Waverly sensed that there was more to this than just Johnson. She leant against Nicole and gave her time to collect her thoughts. “He was really upset. I feel like such a bad person.”

“Don’t.” Waverly interrupted softly. “You’re doing the right thing by not leading him on. If he really is a nice guy he’ll understand and wont take this out on you. You’re not responsible for his feelings.” 

Nicole seemed unsure, but nodded slowly. 

“I just feel like there’s something wro-“ She stopped suddenly and turned pink. Waverly was pretty sure the end of that sentence was _wrong with me_ , which she didn’t fully understand, but it was clear that her friend didn’t want to talk about it, so she let it go despite how concerned she was. 

“I hope this doesn’t affect quidditch… what if they don’t want me on the team anymore?” 

“Now you’re just being silly.” Waverly smiled reassuringly. “You are amazing, they’re not going to replace you. Anyway, Johnson is only a beater, you hardly interact with them.” 

“Thanks, Waverly. I really hope Steph gets the eye bulging clothes first… she’s always telling me my eyes are too big, that they look bug eyed.” 

“Don’t worry, that means she’s jealous. You’ve got beautiful bug eyes.” She joked and Nicole elbowed her playfully. 

 


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

 

Three weeks later, Steph and Chrissy were still managing to come into contact with contaminated belongings. Nicole and Waverly stifled their laughter as Steph had to leave Charms class, mortified because she was dripping grey slime from her mouth for the fifth or sixth time since the prank. She’d be back in twenty or so minutes after she visited Madam Pomfrey, but it was still funny. 

After their lesson ended they dumped most of their bags and met back up in their common room to do some light studying before dinner. They always went to the same one, not too far from the Hufflepuff common room, which Waverly still did not know the exact location of, but had a better idea from the amount of times she’d seen Nicole come and go. When Waverly got to the common room she stopped short at the sight of Bobo standing over Nicole, who was looking highly uncomfortable. Bobo was a seventh year Slytherin, and also happened to be the older brother of Johnson. He had taken offence to Nicole's decision to dump Johnson, and had started commenting loudly sometimes when she walked past.

“So tell me again why my little brother isn’t good enough for you?” Bobo spoke softly, but his voice was full of menace. Nicole’s body was tense, her gaze fixed to the floor. Bobo flicked her on the forehead and she flinched. “I asked you a question, you gonna answer me?” 

“Hey guys, mind if I join the party?” Waverly put as much force into her words as she could muster, glaring at Bobo as she walked to stand next to the sofa Nicole sat on. He straightened up to his full height, a good foot or so taller than she was, and Waverly willed herself not to back down. After several long seconds Bobo backed up, smirking at them both. 

“I was just leaving.” He slowly stalked across to the doorway, pausing to give them each one last look before he disappeared. Waverly let out the breath she’d been holding and Nicole chuckled, though it was forced and lacking any real mirth. 

“So that guy is totally bananas, right?” Waverly dropped down onto the sofa and pulled out her Potions essay to get started on, trying to shake the unsettling feeling. They worked together for an hour, but where they’d normally be chatting and joking they were instead quiet and sombre. 

“He’s getting worse.” Nicole remarked as she checked her essay. Waverly set down her quill deliberately. 

“Why didn’t you say anything?” She murmured, and her friend shrugged.

“I didn’t want to worry you. Besides, they’re just words. Sticks and stones, eh?” 

“What’s he been saying?”

“Oh, you know. Sometimes that I’m a prude, other times that I’m a slut. Usual bullshit.” Nicole didn’t seem as concerned as Waverly was, so she tried to push the worry away. 

“Boys… no imagination.” 

“Indeed. You want to grab dinner now? I need to go to the library after.” 

“Sure. You got much to do?” Waverly agreed as they shouldered their bags and headed to the Great Hall for dinner.

“Nah, I just want to get everything done before the weekend, you know with the match coming.” Gryffindor were playing Slytherin this weekend, and as there was always such a deep rivalry between their houses it was sure to be a good, long game. They got to the Great Hall the same time as Bobo and a slow grin spread across his face as he saw them. 

“Well look who it is. Little Miss Priss, too good fuck my little brother.”

“Ignore him.” Waverly muttered and pulled Nicole by the elbow past him.

“See I’m just wondering now, who would you fuck if not my brother? You get around much? I’m surprised you have such high standards, wouldn’t have thought there’s many guys lining up to give you their hand in marriage or whatever it is you’re expecting.” He followed them closely, leering at them the whole time. “How about me? I’m a handsome fellow, better looking than Johnson I will admit. Would you fuck me?”

“Not if my life depended on it.” Nicole spat over her shoulder. Bobo’s expression darkened.

“You know normally, I wouldn’t go for a girl of your… stature. But see now, I do love them with a little piss ’n vinegar. Adds to the excitement.” 

Waverly stared back at him, utterly revolted. Nicole tried to pull her friend away but she stood her ground.

“Leave us alone, damn sadist.” 

“Now you… you’re far more my type.” His eyes raked her body, lingering on her chest and she clenched her jaw. She was ready to leave it when Nicole shouldered past her and whipped out her wand. 

“Leave her the hell alone, or I swear you will regret it.” The students sat at the tables next to them noticed the altercation and an excited buzz filled the room. Professor Longbottom, the Herbology professor was quickly upon them. 

“What’s going on here?” The three of them glared at each other for a moment before Bobo held his hands up in mock surrender. 

“Nothing, Professor. I was just heading to dinner.” He sloped off to sit with his friends and Longbottom noted the drawn wand with a disapproving frown.

“Ten points from Hufflepuff, miss Haught.” He left them and Nicole looked furious. 

“I’m not hungry anymore.” She uttered the words through clenched teeth, and left with a quick goodbye to her friend. Waverly sat down at the Ravenclaw table, but found that she too didn’t feel much like eating. The students around her were all trying to ask her what had gone on between them, all trying to get the gossip so that they could be in the limelight for a few minutes when they spread it to their friends. She gathered up some dinner rolls and a few other tidbits that would keep and smuggled them out of the hall, heading straight for the library. When she got there she saw Nicole sitting rigidly at a desk, staring at her closed Herbology textbook. 

“I brought you something.” She spread out the edibles across the desk and Nicole quickly looked over her shoulder for the strict librarian. 

“Hubble’s gonna shit a brick if she sees food in the library!” Nicole hissed. She knew first hand how much Madam Hubble hated students bringing food near the books when the fierce old lady had spotted her eating a granola bar during a long study session. Nicole had been chased out of the library by a flock of bewitched flying books which pecked her arms and thumped against her none too gently. Waverly chuckled at the memory of her poor friend, who was clearly slightly scarred by the experience. 

“Relax, she was just heading into the Great Hall for dinner when I left, she’ll be gone at least half an hour. Just try not to drop any crumbs or she’ll be onto us.” 

“I have to admit, I am _starving_ … thanks Waverly.” Nicole smiled mischievously as she selected a bread roll to eat. “I’m sorry I just left like that, I was just a bit angry.” 

“That’s okay, he was being a dick. I’m sure he’ll get over himself soon though.” 

“I hope so. If he doesn’t I know one or two good Canadian hexes that’d suit him.” She muttered with vengeance, and Waverly had to smile at that. 

“Whilst I would pay good money to see you kick his ass… I think it may be better if we tried not to provoke him.” 

“You’re probably right.” Nicole sighed wistfully. “It would be so satisfying though. Can you check over my Potions essay whilst I get started on this Herbology homework? I think I’ve messed up the bit about Amortentia.” 

“Nicole… the whole essay was about Amortentia.”

“Exactly.” Nicole grinned and she rolled her eyes. Her friend was actually really smart, she just sometimes lacked a little faith in her own ability, particularly if she had it in her head that she wasn’t good at something. Waverly held out her hand exasperatedly for the potions essay and quickly skim read it. As predicted it was a good essay and would easily get an Exceeds Expectations.

“I like the personal touch.” Waverly commented, and Nicole looked up in confusion. “About how the Amortentia smelled to you, of shoe polish and cherries and aniseed.” Nicole turned scarlet.

“Shit I forgot about that bit.” Waverly chuckled at how mortified her friend looked.

“Okay, cherry I understand, you’ve gotta love that artificial cherry flavour, anise too i guess if that’s your thing. But the shoe polish…?”

“When I was a kid every sunday night I’d sit on my dad’s lap watching tv whilst he polished his shoes and belt buckles. When he made detective he didn’t have to do it as much any more, only when he needed to wear his dress uniform. But he’d still find things to polish and I’d sit with him whilst he’d polish random things like my soccer trophies or a lamp.” 

“That’s really cute!” She exclaimed, referring both to the story and the expression Nicole wore when she reminisced. “I’ve noticed you do this thing where you often play with your belt buckle, or just rest your hands on it.”

Nicole looked like she’d just realised she’d gone to class with no clothes on. She cleared her throat roughly and snatched her essay back from Waverly.

“Give me that. Don’t you have work to do?” Waverly laughed at her friend.

“If it makes you feel better to me it smelled like dusty old books, bubblegum vodka and dried coconut.”

“Bubblegum vodka? Gross!” Nicole was looking less embarrassed though. 

“Yeah, it really is disgusting. But Wynonna and I got drunk on it one night and I don’t know, it was just a fun night. Reminds me of my sister.”

“Aren’t you like, sixteen?” The cop’s daughter was showing in Nicole but Waverly thought it was cute again.

“My birthday is September 2nd, so I’m seventeen now. Wynonna bought me the vodka as an early birthday present and we had a bit of a sendoff a couple of nights before term started again. Anyway aren’t _you_ sixteen?” 

“I’ll be eighteen in February. Because the school system is different in Canada I’m actually a year behind for my age.” 

“Oh, how come you never said anything?” Nicole shrugged awkwardly.

“It was just a bit embarrassing. I thought people would think I’m thick, especially because I’m in Hufflepuff which apparently seems to be the dud house.” 

“Hufflepuff is _not_ the dud house! That’s just arrogant Slytherins and Gryffindors talking.” Nicole raised her eyebrow at Waverly and she quickly amended her statement. “Okay okay, Ravenclaws can be a bit snobby about intellect too.” Her friend didn’t seem too convinced. “Every house has good and bad qualities, but the way you’re sorted is more based on what you _value_ rather than the qualities that you _possess_. Like most of Ravenclaw are pretty smart, but so are people in other houses too. It’s just that Ravenclaws value their intellect for the sake of it, like how I’m a total nerd and spend most of my free time trying to expand my knowledge even when it’s on useless stuff that I’ll never need to know. Which is good but also sometimes I can get a little too wrapped up in my books, and according to Wynonna I can be an insufferable know it all.” 

Nicole chuckled. “Okay _that_ I can see.”  

“Gryffindors value bravery, but they also have the self restraint of a hyperactive three year old. Wynonna once bet her friend Doc he wouldn’t fight the giant squid and he was half way across the lake before she even finished the sentence.”

“And did he fight it?” She looked mildly alarmed at the thought, they’d all seen the size of the giant squid’s tentacles even if no one knew exactly how big it was.

“Luckily for Doc it didn’t show up. Instead he got mobbed by Grindylows and had to be rescued by Professor Woods. She was furious and he got a month’s worth of detentions.” 

“And Hufflepuff?” 

“Well, they’re known for being hard working.” Waverly paused and gestured to the books and essays scattered across the table. “They value honesty, justice… Does any of this sound familiar?” 

“Okay okay, I get it.” Nicole smiled, looking happier. They were interrupted by the reappearance of Madam Hubble and they quickly hid their food remains. From then on they had to be quieter, Hubble was not a fan of chatter in the library, even though it was almost empty. By the time they each turned in though they’d finished all of their work which was a plus, they’d have most of the weekend free to do what they liked provided they didn’t get set too much homework the next day. 

 


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

 

On Friday morning the great hall was abuzz with excitement for the coming quidditch match. As there were so few matches throughout the year, each one was highly anticipated. Also, Slytherin were in a tough position, having already lost to Hufflepuff. The draw that determined the order of matches had resulted in Slytherin playing twice at the start of the year, and Gryffindor playing twice at the end of the year, rather than the games each being spread out through the school year as was more common. 

Waverly sat peeling a tangerine as she waited for Nicole to turn up. She was almost always down to breakfast before Nicole, who liked to sleep very much. She brightened at the sight of the tall auburn haired girl shuffling into the great hall. Bobo was sitting right at the end of the Slytherin table, next to the double doors, and as Nicole entered the hall he made some kind of joke which had his friends sniggering and turned her friend’s ears pink. 

She walked past and sat down at the Hufflepuff table opposite Waverly. She was half way through her corn flakes when Bobo sauntered over and leaned over Nicole. Waverly felt her hackles raise and she tensed, watching the interaction. Bobo whispered something to Nicole, who ignored him and continued munching her cereal. Annoyed at the lack of response, he poured her cranberry juice into her cereal. She rolled her eyes and ignored him, reaching for a new bowl instead. Waverly looked around, amazed that Bobo was getting away with it, but none of the teachers were paying attention, and the only Hufflepuffs sat near Nicole were Champ and his friends, who were guffawing amongst themselves. Bobo licked a finger and swirled it around Nicole’s freshly made up bowl of cereal. Waverly got up to go do… something. She wasn’t even sure what. But before she got to the Hufflepuff table Nicole had stood up and was walking towards her with some fruit in her hand instead. 

“Hey Waverly, ready for class?” She said brightly, as if nothing was wrong, but Waverly could tell. She nodded quickly and they headed towards their first lesson. 

Bobo was playing up more than usual that entire day. Perhaps it was the building testosterone in the run up to the match, or maybe he’d just got up on the wrong side of the bed that morning. When they left first period he was lounging around outside the classroom, and discretely tripped Nicole as they passed him. She went flying but managed to stay on her feet. After lunch he was back to making obnoxious comments and cat calling them sarcastically as he followed them to Charms class. After Charms, their last lesson of the week, he slung his arm around Nicole and chatted idly with them as they headed towards Hufflepuff. Though he kept his tone light, it was clearly an intimidation tactic and it was working. They were both highly uncomfortable by his presence, Nicole especially which was understandable given his body was pressed against her side in his tight embrace. Thankfully he left when they passed the dungeons, but Waverly insisted on walking Nicole as close to the Hufflepuff common room as she could without knowing its location. Nicole had wanted to just tell her where it was, especially given she knew about the Ravenclaw dorms, but the Hufflepuffs were pretty insistent that she keep it a secret, and were already annoyed that Waverly knew the general area it was based in. 

On Saturday morning Bobo gave them a break, but it was likely only due to the fact that he was preparing for the match. He was a beater, unsurprising due to his muscular build, and had a deep rivalry with Wynonna, which probably didn’t help his antagonism towards Waverly. She and Nicole headed down to the match early to get good seats. They were sporting huge Gryffindor banners which they’d charmed to light up in red and yellow lettering. Waverly was going to do it red and gold but Nicole joked that they should do yellow to slightly tease Wynonna. Waverly countered that she wasn’t fooled, she knew Nicole was trying to sneak a little bit of Hufflepuff pride, but she had gone with yellow anyway. 

When the match kicked off it was dirty and violent from the start. Professor Spinnet was whistling almost constantly for excessive elbowing, kicks, barging, even one case where a Slytherin player flew above Dolls and then dive bombed him from above, causing him to crash into the grass. He was okay though, they had been flying low so only a penalty was awarded for the tactic. The match was fierce, but Gryffindor were leading. The bigger their lead got though, the more intense the play became. Wynonna had her work cut out for her trying to defend her teammates from tackles by beating the bludgers at any Slytherin that dared fly close to one of her teammates, regardless of whether either of them had the quaffle. The match went on for an extremely long time, but thankfully platters of sandwiches appeared mid-afternoon just as students were getting hungry. 

Waverly cheered on her sister as she flew close to their stand, and the cocky fool grinned at her, giving her the thumbs up and tossing her bat up in the air. She then nearly dropped the bat and had to swoop to catch it again, but she don’t seem too bothered by the incident. Instead she beat a bludger directly at Bobo, who was also near their stand. It hit him when he wasn’t looking, causing him to yelp in surprise. Nicole laughed loudly and he turned to glare at her. Despite the fact that the rest of the stand were also laughing he seemed to focus in on Nicole, and whacked a nearby bludger with all his strength in her direction. She dove out of the way, pushing Waverly off the bench and hovering above her as the bludger passed through the space they’d occupied moments before. Luckily they were sat at the edge of the stand and so there was no one beside them to be hit either. Nicole scrambled upright and helped Waverly to her feet, hands lingering on Waverly’s arms as if to reassure herself she was okay. 

“Wynonna, no!” Waverly yelled, as she saw Wynonna flying full pelt towards Bobo, her beaters bat lying forgotten on the pitch below. She could tell Wynonna was about to full on muggle brawl with Bobo, but if she got into something like that again she’d be kicked off the team for sure. Wynonna heard the shout and pulled up just short of Bobo, throwing an anguished glance at her sister.

“You could have killed my sister, you asshole!” She screamed at the Slytherin, shaking with rage. Bobo simply looked disappointed that Wynonna wasn’t fighting him. He loved playing games and getting a rise out of people. Professor Spinnet, thankfully, had seen the foul and was blowing the whistle for a penalty. Hitting a bludger at the crowd was a pretty serious foul and she took Bobo aside to tell him off. After that, the fouls eased off a little, however Wynonna spent the rest of the match chasing Bobo round, hitting bludgers at him. The other Gryffindor beater even helped her for a while, the two of them pelting Bobo as he tried to duck and dodge the ferocious balls. It was definitely entertaining for Waverly and Nicole, and the rest of the Gryffindor team seemed to revel in the antics, Dolls and Doc even joining in the teasing by blocking Bobo whenever possible. 

The match ended with Doc catching the snitch and the stadium erupted in cheers. 

“Waheyyyy!” Wynonna flung her bat in the air in celebration, laughing when it nearly hit Dolls on the way back down. “Oops, sorry mate!” 

Waverly and Nicole were heading back up to the castle when Wynonna jogged up beside them.

“Party in Gryffindor common room, you coming Wave?” 

“Now? Don’t you need time to get umm, the stuff?” Waverly muttered, conscious of some nearby Slytherin prefects who would love the opportunity to ruin the party.

“Don’t be silly, we planned ahead!” 

“How did you know you would win?” Nicole asked in confusion, clearly keeping up with the topic of conversation, which was the presence of booze for their party. Wynonna chuckled and reached up to pat Nicole’s head.

“Oh you sweet summer child. It’s win-win either way. If we win, we get to get drunk and party, and if we lose, we get to drown our sorrows.” 

“Wynonna likes to party.” Waverly said by way of explanation. “I don’t think I’ll go this time, sis, I’ve got so much homework to do.” She lied. Nicole looked at her in confusion, they had finished it all the previous night.

“Boo, you nerd. Swing by this evening though?” Waverly hesitated, looking at Nicole and Wynonna finally caught on. 

“Your friend can come too!” Waverly felt herself blushing though she wasn’t sure why.

“Your house _barely_ tolerates me, and I’m your sister.” Wynonna wrinkled her nose, seeing her sister’s point.

“That’s fair. Okay well tell you what, after party in the room of requirement, just me you, your friend here, and a few other people.” 

Nicole and Waverly exchanged a glance as they quickly communicated their response. Waverly nodded to Wynonna.

“Sounds like fun, just go easy on the drink this afternoon? I’d like you to still be conscious and coherent by the time we get there.” 

Wynonna smirked and flipped her off then jogged to catch up with Doc and Dolls. 

 


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

 

Nicole was waiting for Waverly at one of their usual meeting spots, casually leaning against the wall. Her friend had forgone her usual neat braid and instead her auburn hair fell loose to her shoulders. It was actually the first time she’d seen Nicole with her hair down, every other day she’d had it french plaited or at the very least in a ponytail. She spotted Waverly approaching and smiled radiantly. Waverly felt a little lost for words for a moment.

“You look so… different… with your hair down.” Was all she managed to say. Nicole pulled a face, looking worried.

“Good different or bad different?” 

“Good different!” Waverly hastily amended and Nicole beamed. “I mean the braid is hella cute, it’s just so strange seeing you without it… you look like a different person.” 

“I figured since I didn’t have any nice clothes to dress up in I had to make some kind of effort.” Nicole chuckled and gestured to her outfit which was pretty casual, a black tank top with black jeans and an unbuttoned purple plaid shirt. 

“No you look great!” Waverly reassured her. She herself had gone for a skirt and crop top combination that was incredibly cute if she did think so herself. 

“So… where exactly are we going?” 

“The room of requirement. It’s part of the castle’s magic, it used to be on the seventh floor but too many people found out about it’s existence so the castle just thought fuck that and moved it, but I managed to find it last year. It’s this room where basically whatever you need, it’ll have.”

“Like if you need a place to throw a party where teachers can’t catch you underage drinking?” 

“Exactly.” Waverly grinned. “You can even use it to get in and out of the castle but you have to be really precise with what you ask for, Wynonna did it once and got stuck in Hogsmeade because all she asked for was a route _out_ of the castle. This is how she gets the booze and snacks in too.”

“Do you think it could give me a working wifi connection?” Nicole sighed wistfully and Waverly chuckled. 

“We’ll have to try it some time.” They reached the spot where the room of requirement appeared and Waverly quickly paced in front of it several times until the door materialised. As they stepped inside they were greeted by rowdy drunken cheers from the room’s inhabitants. This response was more due to the amount of alcohol consumption than their actual presence, but it was still a nice welcoming feeling. 

The room was mostly full of Gryffindor sixth and seventh years, with a few teenagers from other houses mixed in. As far as parties went it was decent, nothing too crazy but not dull either. There were drinks, snacks, a few people dancing, most people lounging on sofas, bean bags, the floor- pretty generic stuff. Nicole and Waverly joined the loungers whilst Wynonna fetched them each a drink. 

After an hour or so the party had already halved in volume with a lot of the Gryffindors having peaked too soon. That was the problem when you started drinking at five in the afternoon, by the time it hit ten o clock you were either sleepy or wasted. Luckily there were enough sleepy drunks to guide home the wasted drunks so there was no need to worry about students passing out in a corridor somewhere and getting discovered by a teacher. Waverly was feeling pleasantly tipsy when Wynonna suggested they play some drinking games to liven up the party a bit. 

“Never have I ever… kissed someone in this room.” Wynonna started them off, and everyone looked to her in confusion as she drank. 

“You know you’re supposed to say things that you haven’t done, right?” Dolls asked.

“Well yeah but it’s too hard to think of things that I _haven’t_ done, and besides this way I get to drink!” She laughed and a few other people drank including both Doc and Dolls, who’d each kiss Wynonna at various points. Currently Dolls and Wynonna were dating, but the three of them dealt with that surprisingly well given than Doc and Wynonna used to date. They’d stay friends through all the relationship dramas which Waverly admired. They went round in a circle taking turns, some going for easy ones to get other people to drink, others going for the juicier ones. 

“Never have I ever kissed a girl.” Waverly ventured, and a few of the girls drank along with all the guys. Dolls looked at Wynonna in surprise.

“That’s news to me, girl.” 

“Look, she had _really_ great hair.” Wynonna said by way of explanation. 

“Never have I ever tried to fight a giant squid.” Nicole said with a laugh at Doc’s embarrassed glare. 

“Thank you Waverly for sharing that very personal piece of information…” 

“Doc, half the school was watching!” 

“Never have I ever gone skinnydipping.” Waverly was the only person not to drink. She turned to Nicole in amazement.

“Yeah, it was a bad idea. I thought I was gonna get frostbite.” 

“Never have I ever watched the Princess Bride.” Wynonna smirked at Waverly who drank. So did nearly everyone else. When it got round to Wynonna’s turn again she grinned evilly at Waverly. “Never have I ever watched the Princess Bride twice in one weekend.” Waverly glared at her sister and drank, and just as the next person was saying theirs Doc took a discrete sip of his whiskey. 

“Never have I ever had sex whilst my parents were home.”

“Never have I ever hit on someone whilst wearing my own vomit.”

“Never have I ever peed in someone else’s bed.” 

“Never have I ever had sex outside.” 

And so it went on. Waverly was soon very drunk, but she still noticed when Nicole drank to someone’s “Never have I ever had a crush on someone in this room.”. Waverly’s insides burned with curiosity at that one, or was it just alcohol, or maybe something else entirely. Nicole had been laughing and joking with Doc a lot that evening… did she have a crush on _Doc_? Before she could say anything she was distracted by Wynonna dropping heavily on her lap.

“Oof.” She moaned. “Get off me you lump.” Wynonna cackled drunkenly and planted a sloppy kiss to Waverly’s temple. Waverly wiggled and squirmed until she managed to slide out from under her sister but in the process ended up on the floor. She leaned against Nicole’s legs, resting her head on her friend’s knee. Nicole reached out and stroked Waverly’s hair away from her face. It felt nice, but Nicole’s hand quickly withdrew. Dolls was looking at them curiously. The Never Have I Evers died down and they switched to another drinking game to liven things up. 

 

Nicole squinted at her watch blearily, it was nearly two in the morning and she could hardly keep her eyes open. Wynonna was sleeping, or possibly passed out, on a sofa tucked against Dolls’ chest. She was snoring softly, a small trail of drool hanging from her open mouth. She looked almost vulnerable, so different from the wild brazen partygoer she’d seen this evening. The party had shrunk to only a handful of students, who were currently engaged in a drunken, slurred debate about quidditch. Waverly was making out with a Hufflepuff seventh year, who was pawing at her body in ways that looked highly uncomfortable. Waverly was far too drunk to make sensible life choices, Nicole doubted she’d be making out with one of Champ’s friends if she were sober so she decided it was time to step in.

“Hey Waves, lets head out now, okay?” She suggested, tentatively reaching a hand out to touch Waverly’s shoulder, fearing that her friend would want to stay with this guy. To her relief Waverly looked up at her, taking several long moments to focus before nodding and attempting to get to her feet. The guy, Spencer, pulled heavily on Waverly’s arm causing her to fall back into his lap.

“She’s fine here with me.” He was drunk, but no where near as drunk as Waverly was and Nicole was sure that he was aware enough of what he was doing to be held responsible. Waverly was struggling to get out of his lap whilst he held her down against him. Nicole curled her lip in distaste at the display.

“Wave, do you want to go?” She kept her tone light, trying to avoid a conflict with this douche bag. Waverly nodded again and she slipped her arm around her tiny friend’s waist to help her up, forcibly detaching her from Spencer. He pouted and she paused to lean into his ear. “You will not say a word about this to anyone, are we clear?” She whispered with as much venom as she could muster. “If this gets out I will hold you personally accountable and I will make your life hell. My father is a police detective, I know how to dissolve a body.” 

The rest of the students there were all probably too drunk to remember any of this, and even if they did they were Gryffindors and wouldn’t care that much. She didn’t want this getting back to Champ though, or things could get ugly. She’d seen enough of his pettiness to last her the year. He was often slagging off Waverly behind her back which she hadn’t mentioned to her friend out of kindness, though she’d sure as shit tell her if Waverly ever showed any inclination of wanting to get back with Champ. Her friend was currently giggling weakly as Nicole half carried her out of the Room of Requirement. 

“Nicoooooleeee…” Waverly sing-songed. Her arm was wrapped around Nicole’s back for support and Nicole was aware of the fact that her hand was basically cupping her boob. 

“Yeah Waverly?”

“I love how you say my name.” She slurred, and then mimicked Nicole in a terrible Canadian accent which made Nicole smile. “Hey Nicole what do you prefer, unicorns or pega…pegassussess.” Waverly struggled over the word.

“Umm pegasus?”

“What?? No! Unicorns are so much better!” 

“But pegasus can fly?” 

“Yeah but unicorns are unicorns!” Nicole shook her head fondly, not knowing how to respond to that. They stumbled a few corridors further in silence before Waverly stopped in her tracks, swaying slightly on her feet.

“Oh shit. I was making out with _Spencer_!” She looked mortified and it made Nicole feel a bit better in a selfish way. At least she knew that she’d done the right thing by stepping in. 

“Yeah, not your smartest move ever I’d have to say.” 

“He’s a really bad kisser.”

“I’ll bet.” Nicole smirked and Waverly seemed to lose track of her thoughts looking at Nicole. 

“He… Like when he kissed me… His tongue went like… To my intestines.” Nicole chuckled and gently tugged on Waverly’s hand to lead her back to Ravenclaw. 

“Less is more, am I right?” 

“You’re _so_ right.” She looked mildly perturbed for a moment before giggling. “Hey Nicole…. would you rather have hands for feet or feet for hands?” 

This kind of nonsense carried on until Nicole reached the bronze eagle knocker. She now realised the flaw in her plan, which was that she’d never actually seen Waverly enter the Ravenclaw common room. Waverly had the giggles and was making no attempt to help her out. 

Nicole reached out to knock with the eagle knocker, having no idea what would happen but before she could touch it the bronze beak parted and it spoke. 

“Where do vanished objects go?” 

“Ummm…” Nicole was stumped. “I don’t know?” The door remained shut, though she hadn’t really expected anything else. 

“Up your butt!” Waverly slurred, almost doubled over with laughter at her own hilarity. If bronze eagle knockers could pull faces, Nicole was sure this one would have rolled its eyes. 

“Pass?” She tried, and after a few moments the eagle presented a new riddle.

“Many have heard me, but none has seen me, and I will not speak back until I am spoken to.” 

“Uhhh… silence? No wait that doesn’t even make sense.” Nicole wracked her alcohol soaked brain, not that she’d be able to answer this even if she wasn’t still a little drunk. She stood for at least twenty minutes, passing on all these ridiculously hard riddles whilst Waverly provided extremely unhelpful answers. She was so tired and she didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t leave Waverly out here all night, and she really didn’t want to stay there either. By this point Waverly had managed to shake her giggles but instead was almost falling asleep too. 

Nicole decided there was only one thing left to do, and started walking them both to the Hufflepuff common room. Once there, she tapped the barrels to the correct rhythm and slipped inside. She was extremely careful, scoping out the common room until she was satisfied that the coast was clear and led Waverly up to the dormitory. There were only two other Hufflepuff girls in her year, and each were fast asleep when they tip toed into the dorm. Or at least Nicole tip toed, Waverly… clomped. Nicole winced as Waverly tripped and stumbled into her bedside table with a loud bang. She froze as Waverly moaned with pain and one of the girls rolled over, but after a few tense heartbeats they remained undiscovered. 

Nicole guided Waverly over to her bed, grateful she’d changed the sheets recently. Waverly flopped onto the bed and in the process semi dragged Nicole down with her. She put her hand out, bracing herself against the mattress so that she didn’t fall completely on her friend. Waverly reached out and grazed her palm against the side of Nicole’s face. _She’s drunk,_ Nicole thought to herself fiercely. _We’re just friends_. She managed to tug the blanket out from under Waverly and then tucked her in. She briefly considered sharing the bed, it looked so comfortable and she was just so frigging tired. But it felt weird, so instead she took one of the extra pillows and the throw from the foot of the bed before ensuring the curtains were securely shut around the bed. She didn’t want one of the other girls seeing Waverly in the bed because that would get her in trouble for bringing someone into the Hufflepuff dorm, and also that would probably start a whole host of rumours that she didn’t want to deal with. She crawled underneath the bed instead, there was just enough room for her to lie comfortably on her side, and coccooned herself in the throw so that she was lying on it and also covered by it. Her sheer fatigue and the remaining alcohol in her bloodstream allowed her to quickly doze off despite the hard floor beneath her. 

 


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

 

Waverly wrinkled her nose at the tickling sensation, groaning and scrunching her eyes up against the soft morning light. 

“Wave… wake up.” She ignored the whisper and tried to roll over, snuggling into the soft pillow. It smelled different to usual, like some kind of flower she couldn’t place. Again the voice hissed in her ear, accompanied by an insistent prodding on her shoulder. “Waverly, please wake up.” 

“What?” She whined, and opened her eyes at least. It took approximately two seconds for her to take in her surroundings, and Nicole’s face hanging just above her own, soft red hair tickling her cheek. “Shit. _What_?” She scrambled to sit up, realising she was in the Hufflepuff dorm and that Nicole was stood next to her in a hoodie and pyjama pants. She could not remember how she’d gotten here last night.

“I’ll explain, but look we have to get out of here quickly.” Nicole looked over her shoulder anxiously at the bedroom door and Waverly could just make out the sounds of students in the Hufflepuff common room. What she’d thought was morning sunlight was actually from a lamp, and Waverly realised they must be below ground level. It was very different to the Ravenclaw dorms which were up in the tower with so much light. Nicole looked at her impatiently and Waverly hastily got out of bed, noticing that she still wore last night’s attire. 

“How am I going to get out of here?” Waverly hissed and Nicole looked anguished.

“I don’t know! I didn’t think that far ahead, okay?” She was wringing Waverly’s heels in her hands nervously and Waverly quickly rescued her poor shoes. “But we need to go before Renata and Amy get back from breakfast.” 

“There’s not even a window to climb out of.” Waverly grumbled, trying to think. WWWD. What Would Wynonna Do? Her sister was used to getting into these kind of messes, she’d know what to do.

“A two person horse costume would come in handy right about now.” Nicole commented idly and Waverly snorted a surprised laugh. 

“You could pretend you wet the bed and carry me out rolled up in your bedding?”

“Hard pass.” They chuckled and sat on Nicole’s bed to wrack their brains. 

“I suppose brewing polyjuice potion would take a _tad_ too long.” 

“Ya think?” 

“Maybe… we could just go for it? I mean, you’ve been in the Gryffindor common room and it’s not like you got in trouble for that?” 

“I’ve never stayed the night though.” They both paused, hearing the implication that hung heavy in the air between them. Waverly blushed, flustered. “I mean. Well. You know what I mean. Speaking of, umm, if I slept in your bed last night… where did you sleep?” The bed was only a single, she didn’t think there’d be much room for them both to sleep in it, not that she minded the idea of that really, she just perhaps would be a little more comfortable if she could remember it. 

“Oh.” Nicole looked embarrassed. “I slept on the floor, under the bed. I didn’t want Renata or Amy to see me on the floor and think to check who was sleeping in the bed.”

“You slept on the floor? I’m so sorry!” 

“Don’t be, it was fine. You know what they say, sleeping on a hard surface is good for the vertebrae right?” Waverly could see that her friend looked tired and doubted she’d slept as well as she claimed. “I did try taking you back to Ravenclaw, but I couldn’t get in, those damn riddles are hard.” 

“They’re silly riddles, often there’s not even a proper answer to them, you just have to spout the right rubbish and it’ll let you in.”

“Ah. Well I panicked, and I was tired so I thought screw it, I’ll deal with the consequences of this in the morning.”

“Sorry I drank so much.” Waverly muttered sheepishly, she was fine getting wasted with Wynonna but that was different because her sister was always as drunk as she was. Nicole shook her head, grinning. 

“I had fun last night, don’t sweat it.” She got up to go check the common room but came back shaking her head sadly. “It must be raining outside, the common room is packed. I guess we’ll have to wait it out?” Waverly sighed, it’s not like spending the day trapped in Nicole’s bedroom was the worst thing ever, but she felt a little worse for wear after last night.

“Ugh I need a shower.” 

“There’s a bathroom just off the dorm, you can take a shower, freshen up. I can lend you some spare clothes.” 

Nicole rifled through her closet, trying to find something that was a little on the smaller side. In the end she just pulled out a cosy sweatshirt and a pair of cropped pyjama bottoms.

“These might be full length on you.” Waverly chuckled, accepting the pyjamas an Nicole led the way to the bathroom, the two of them tensed and ready to retreat if they heard anyone coming. After her shower she finger brushed with some stolen toothpaste and swilled mouthwash thoroughly several times. The pyjamas in fairness did nearly reach her ankles, but the sweatshirt was more like a dress on her tiny frame. She shuffled back to the dorm and was relieved to see that it was still empty but for Nicole who was lying on her bed with her arm across her eyes. She looked exhausted. 

“You look like shit.” Waverly commented, and Nicole jumped before relaxing at the sight of her friend. 

“Well I did do my own fair share of drinking last night too. There’s water on the nightstand here. Sorry I couldn’t get any food, I woke up too late for breakfast.” 

It was nearly midday by this point, so lunch would be open soon. Nicole patted the mattress beside her and shut her eyes again. Waverly carefully slid onto the bed, and shut the bed hangings  so they wouldn’t be seen. There was just about enough room for them both on the bed, with Waverly sat propped up against the pillow and Nicole laying right along the edge of the bed. 

They chatted for a while until Nicole dosed off. She looked sweet, her hair all mussed over her face. Waverly was knackered too, and she slid down the bed until she lay next to Nicole. She watched Nicole sleep for a bit, mesmerised by the way her deep breaths fluttered the lock of hair over her mouth. She dropped off herself, lulled to sleep by the rhythmic breathing and warmth of Nicole’s body next to hers. 

They were woken suddenly by voices and the loud clatter of clothes hangers being rifled through. Nicole started awake and instinctively reached out to lay her hand on Waverly’s arm, gesturing for her to stay still. They listened as wardrobe doors banged shut and Renata discussed her study date she had with Spencer. Nicole looked sideways at Waverly, presumably trying to gauge her reaction to see if she remembered making out with Spencer last night. She did. She winced at the memory and as she made eye contact with Nicole the two of them tried not to laugh at the face Waverly was pulling. Waverly just wondered how long Spencer had been planning this study date with Renata, and if she’d be happy to find out he was making out with another girl the night before. Poor girl. They lay in tense silence until the two girls left, some twenty minutes later. Neither of them had checked on Nicole, which her friend didn’t seem particularly surprised or bothered by. Waverly guessed they still hadn’t warmed to her as she had. 

As the girls left Nicole let out a deep sigh of relief. She checked her watch, it was nearly three p.m., they were going to miss lunch too if they didn’t find a way out of Hufflepuff soon. Nicole’s belly rumbled audibly and the red-head rolled her eyes in embarrassment. 

“I’m so hungry, I think my stomach is going to start digesting itself if I don’t eat soon.” 

“I’ve seen how much food you can put away in one sitting, I’m surprised you haven’t wasted away already.” Waverly retorted, finding the situation a lot funnier than Nicole. “You go get some food, I’ll be okay here. Bring me back some toast or something?” 

Her friend nodded in agreement and rolled out of bed. She left the room for several seconds before returning quickly. 

“The common room is empty, come on let’s go!” For a split second Waverly actually felt slightly disappointed. She was enjoying herself, lying around with Nicole despite the slight fear that they might be caught. It’s not like they were doing anything wrong, but the school had pretty strict policies on people being in dorms they weren’t assigned to. Common rooms were generally okay, just heavily frowned upon and the most they’d make you do is leave. If there was a girl in a boy’s dorm though, well that could have some serious consequences. She’d decided not to tell Nicole this during the day because her friend was nervous and twitchy enough when it just came to bending minor rules. They hustled out, and Nicole practically skipped to the great hall for food. 

“So how much of last night do you remember?” Nicole asked casually as they both sat at the Ravenclaw table. The great hall was practically deserted at this time of day so there weren’t many students around to give them dirty looks. She sighed dramatically as she piled her plate up with mashed potato and roast pork. “If there’s one thing the Brits do right, it’s your obsession with having roast dinners on sunday afternoons.” 

Waverly was not so keen on it herself, but the gravy was definitely helping with her hangover. 

“I remember playing drinking games, I remember Wynonna doing body shots… I vaguely recall Doc trying to do a back flip?” 

“Yep. That happened. He owes Wynonna two sickles.” Nicole grinned but seemed hesitant, like she wasn’t sure what Waverly was going to say next.

“I remember… ugh, making terrible life choices with Spencer.” She shuddered and they both laughed. 

“Well at least you only went to first base.” Nicole smirked.

“Oh thank goodness. There were bits that I couldn’t really remember.” 

“Well he seemed to want to go further but well, you were a bit drunk. I wasn’t sure if it was a decision you’d make sober so I thought it best to intervene.”

“Thank you so much for that. Like A) Spencer is gross. Not physically, I mean you’ve seen him, but personality wise, yuck. And B) I don’t want to even think about the drama that would’ve gone down if I’d gone further with one of Champ’s friends. I hope Champ doesn’t find out.” 

“Well judging by the fact that he’s dating Renata, I don’t think he’s in a rush to tell anyone either.” 

“They’re dating?” Waverly looked slightly disgusted.

“It’s pretty new, but Renata is definitely under the impression that they’re dating anyway. Poor gal.” 

“Oh no, that makes me an adultress.” Waverly sighed unhappily. 

“Hey, don’t you go blaming yourself for that. You had no idea he had a possible girlfriend. He’s the shithead that couldn’t keep it in his pants. He is 100% the one in the wrong here. Also he wasn’t even that drunk, and you were, so he was trying to take advantage of you.” 

She smiled at her friend’s protective tone, and reached across the table to pat Nicole’s hand gently. 

“You’re a good friend, Nicole.” The smile she received back seemed a little off, almost wistful, but before she could ask what was wrong Nicole went back to shovelling food down her throat and the moment was gone. 

 


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

 

As December advanced with flurries of snowfall, the sixth years were far too preoccupied with their upcoming exams to enjoy the snow. Nicole and Waverly spent most of their time in the library, along with half their year group, as they frantically crammed ready for exams week. Unfortunately Bobo had not forgotten his grudge against Nicole and Waverly, although he had relaxed his methods somewhat. Perhaps he too was busy with exams, but his constant bullying had turned into just name calling and the occasional discrete shove as they walked by, and he no longer stalked them between lessons. Or at least not the ones that Waverly shared with Nicole, and if he was bothering her when she wasn’t around her friend hadn’t mentioned it. 

Champ, however, was becoming more of a problem. He had presumed that he would be getting back together with Waverly at some point after their break up, and as more and more time passed with Waverly still not crawling back to him, he started to get annoyed. He had tried asking her out again a couple of times, and the third time she said no he took it hard. Since then he had took it upon himself to join up with Bobo’s little vendetta against Nicole and Waverly. He wasn’t as persistent or as harsh as Bobo was, even with Bobo’s recent relaxation, but as he was a Hufflepuff this was causing Nicole a slight problem. She’d taken to staying in the library till just before lights out, because at least the library was something of a sanctuary under Hubble’s reign of terror. It did however mean that between studying, quidditch and her time in the library, she had hardly any chance to unwind and it was taking a toll. The only thing she had to look forward to was the holiday she had planned with her father. 

On the last thursday of term, the penultimate day of exams, one of the school owls dropped a letter on Nicole’s porridge. Waverly watched her friend eagerly rip open the scroll, but as her eyes scanned the contents her face dropped. She abruptly shoved the letter into her robe pocket and left the dining hall, uneaten porridge forgotten. Concerned, Waverly followed suit. She caught up with Nicole a few corridors down and gently pulled on her friend’s elbow.

“Hey. _Hey_.” She pulled harder when her friend didn’t immediately stop. As Nicole reluctantly turned to face Waverly she saw that her eyes were swimming with unshed tears. “What happened?” 

“My father, he…” Her voice broke and she choked up. Unable to answer, she fished in her robe pocket for the scroll and handed it to Waverly. She quickly skimmed the text, her heart sinking as she took in the phrases, I _’m really sorry… Caught up in a high profile case… Can’t take the time off… Next time, I promise_ … Instinctively, Waverly pulled Nicole down for a hug. Her friend stiffened for a moment before relaxing into the embrace with a deep sigh. It occurred to Waverly that they’d never hugged before, and she felt a moment of discontent when Nicole pulled away from her. 

“Sorry… I’m being stupid, I know.” Nicole swiped at her cheeks with her sleeves.

“No you’re not!” Waverly reassured, trying to find the right thing to say. “You were really looking forward to the trip, and you’ve had a hard month.” 

“I guess he’s right though, skiing and sightseeing can wait another year.” 

“London is really cool though, I bet it’s even nicer at christmas.” 

“I’m staying at Hogwarts.” Nicole muttered, taking from her pocket the second half of the letter. She stroked her thumb over the page as she read part of it aloud. “ _It’s too dangerous to have you around whilst I work this case. The suspect has already targeted people close to the other detectives. I don’t want to put you at risk_.” She paused, sighing unhappily, and pocketed the letter. “It’s happened once before, when he just made detective. I understand, I just… I miss him. He’s going to come up to Hogsmeade for a couple days on Christmas eve, so at least there’s that to look forward to.” 

“I’m so sorry…” Waverly didn’t know what she could do to make her friend feel better. She herself was going home to Gus’s with Wynonna on Saturday morning. She’d be gone for three of the four weeks of winter break. That was three weeks Nicole would be alone, as most of the school went home for Christmas. 

“Don’t be. Shit happens.” They didn’t speak much as they headed back to the great hall for their Charms exam. They had a two hour charms theory exam before lunch, a one hour practical exam after lunch, and then a two hour Ancient Runes exam. By the end of the day they were both exhausted, but they still trudged up to the library to do some last minute preparation for their final exams: herbology and care of magical creatures practicals, then defence against the dark arts practical and theory. 

On friday afternoon, as they filed out of the great hall, Waverly felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She was so tired, she felt like she could sleep for a month, but she didn’t care. She didn’t even care that she was sure she’d messed up a really easy question on the paper. She practically bounded over to Nicole, who was looking similarly tired but exhilarated. They headed towards Hufflepuff common room as usual, Waverly walking Nicole back to make sure she wouldn’t be picked on by Bobo. They checked their answers with each other, excited to see that they’d often gone for the same answer which to them reassured them that they’d got the answer right. Or at least that was a preferable conclusion to reach rather than thinking they both got it wrong. They were so deeply engrossed that they didn’t realise they’d got so close to Hufflepuff until  they were right in front of the stack of barrels.   

“What the fuck?” Champ exclaimed angrily as he and his friend Johnson rounded the corner and saw Waverly standing outside the common room entrance. 

“Uh, see ya around Nicole.” Waverly quickly muttered and backtracked past the two Hufflepuff boys. She dodged out of sight, trying to diffuse the situation by disappearing, but as she left she heard Champ confront Nicole.

“Why is she here? Why did you show her our common room.” Waverly paused, wanting to know if anything further would happen. 

“I- I didn’t.” Nicole stuttered. “I just lost track of where I was going. I wasn’t going to show her how to get in.” 

“Why would she want to go in anyway? What is between you two? See I don’t get why she broke up with me. We were fine until you came along. Then she got this stick up her ass about you, like if I say the slightest thing she’s on my case like ‘oh Champ, you don’t have to be so mean all the time!’. It makes me wonder…” 

He trailed off and Waverly strained to catch his words but he was too quiet. Whatever Nicole responded was also too soft for her ears to pick up, and she was about to leave when Champ retorted suddenly.

“I knew it. That’s disgusting! Disgusting!” 

“Not now, Champ.” Nicole huffed in disdain, and Waverly decided it was time to step in. She slipped back into the corridor but before she could say anything Nicole turned to the stack of barrels and started tapping them with her wand. Champ nudged Johnson with a smirk and raised his own wand.

“ _Expelliarmus_.” He disarmed Nicole, whose wand flew out of her hand and into his open palm. The rhythm of tapping was interrupted and the barrels started squirting liquid all over Nicole, who shrieked and covered her eyes as an acrid vinegar stench filled the air. Nicole whirled around and advanced on Champ, who was smiling cockily, twirling Nicole’s wand between his fingers. Waverly was so full of anger that she whipped her own wand out. She was not going to let this slide on today of all days. Not when her friend had experienced such an awful month; she’d put up with Bobo’s tormenting, Champ’s petty remarks, exams, her father letting her down, the prospect of spending christmas alone. 

“ _Redactum Skullus_.” Waverly bellowed, and Champ stumbled backward, dropping both wands and clutching at his head, which was rapidly shrinking. It settled on the size of a turnip, which looked utterly bizarre on his full size body. 

“What did you do?” He shrieked, reaching a pitch that was likely only audible to dogs. 

“Oh relax, Madam Pomfrey will sort you out.” Waverly spat, entirely unsympathetic. “Or you could stay like this, at least this way your pea brain wont rattle round your skull quite as badly.” 

Champ lunged for his wand, but Nicole got there first, barging him out of the way to grab hers as well. She lobbed his wand down the corridor, then grabbed Waverly’s hand and ran past, dragging her behind. They ran as fast as they could until they no longer heard Champ following, then Waverly ducked behind a tapestry, pulling Nicole into the narrow passageway. 

“That was amazing!” Nicole laughed, gasping for breath. 

“I can’t believe I just did that.” Waverly was double over, lungs heaving as she tried to regain her composure. She straightened up, still breathing heavily. She was standing close to Nicole. Really close. She tried to remember what they’d been doing, found that her head was strangely empty. Nicole was gazing at her, so intensely that Waverly couldn’t focus, couldn’t breath. Her eyes dropped to Nicole’s lips, just for a moment, and when she looked up again Nicole’s eyes darkened. She leant in, and Waverly could feel her body responding even while her brain screamed at her. Their faces were only a couple inches apart when Waverly forced herself out of it.

“I just realised I still have to pack.” She stumbled back from Nicole, who was flushed bright pink and avoiding her eyes. 

“Uh, sure. I’ll er, I’ll catch you later, after dinner maybe?” 

Waverly nodded, feeling panicked. She dashed from the passageway, stumbling towards Ravenclaw tower, forcing herself to fill her mind with useless facts about _Mimbulus mimbletonia_ just so that she wouldn’t replay that moment in her head. She didn’t stop until she got to the dorm, where she sat on her bed staring at her fully packed trunk. She didn't go to dinner that evening, and instead stayed in her dorm so she could be alone with her thoughts. 

 


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

 

By the next morning, Waverly was so hungry she had to go to breakfast, particularly with the long train journey to King’s Cross that lay ahead of her. She went early, in hopes of catching Nicole and as she walked into the great hall her friend gave her a nervous wave. She looked like she’d slept about as well as Waverly had. She waved back, but then avoided looking over in Nicole’s direction for the rest of her breakfast. She needed to see her but she just… needed a bit more time to prepare. Emotionally. As soon as she finished her food she left the table and met Nicole outside the great hall where it was quiet. 

“Hi.” Nicole breathed, looking so unsure of herself that Waverly’s heart twisted. She knew where this was going, she just had no idea how to handle it. 

“Hi.” They dawdled for several minutes, not knowing what to say next. 

“We need to talk.” Nicole started, and Waverly knew it was time, but everything she wanted to say had left her brain. 

“I guess we do, yeah.” More awkward silence. 

“So I’ve ah, I’ve been thinking.” Nicole mumbled, twisting her fingers agitatedly. “About our, uh, situation.” 

“Right, of course.” 

“It’s just that, I think maybe it’s time we ought to tell someone.” 

“Tell someone? Oh no, I don’t want to do that!” Waverly burst out, thinking about how fast news would travel if they knew Nicole was into girls, and the conclusions they’d jump to when they saw how often Waverly hung out with her. 

“Why not?” Her friend looked confused. 

“Well, because it’s different for me… and you know, it’s really personal!” 

“I don’t know about it being personal… people must see what’s going on, they must whisper about it?” 

“Gosh I hope not! I mean, I’ve only just discovered it myself, when I met you.” Waverly felt a thrill as she said the words aloud, but that meant nothing. She forced it down. Nicole looked utterly perplexed by now.

“Well of course, I’m the reason this is happening.” _Well that’s a little presumptuous_ , Waverly thought. “But if we told someone, a teacher… maybe they could do something about it?” 

“Like what?” Waverly looked alarmed. The thought of a teacher interfering in her personal business was just horrifying.  

“I don’t know… put a stop to it?” 

“You… want that?” Now Waverly was confused. 

“Of course. It’s just so tough to deal with, and I hate that it affects you too.” Her friend sounded anguished. 

“It’s not all bad though…” Waverly tried to reassure her.

“Okay… but it’s not great either. Our lives would definitely be better without this hassle.” 

“Maybe, but I think it’s something that we need to resolve ourselves. I believe in you.” 

“Well, thank you, but I don’t think I can do this by myself. It’s not like I have a magical gift or anything.” 

“No, I get it, you’re a lesbian not a unicorn.”

“ _What_?” Nicole hissed, looking around in horror to see if anyone had overheard.

“What?” Waverly echoed, confused. 

“Are you making fun of me?” Nicole looked distressed and Waverly replayed the conversation in her head, trying to work out what she’d said wrong. 

“No! Sorry, don’t you _want_ to talk?” 

“What I want is for Bobo to leave me alone.” She held her hands up in surrender and stormed off, leaving Waverly feeling slightly lost.

“Huh, well I think I’d do better with the unicorn.” She remarked casually, before heading up to her room to collect her trunk. 

 

Waverly dragged her trunk towards the carriages, wishing she’d waited for Wynonna so her sister could’ve helped her with the heavy case. She was almost half way when the handle broke and she cursed furiously as the trunk dropped back on the floor with a _thunk_. She’d worked herself up into a horrible mood, replaying her miniature fight with Nicole in her head, still confused by… well, everything. 

“Waverly, what’re you doing?” Waverly ignored the soft drawl behind her as she struggled to lift the trunk by its broken handle. 

“Being alone. I want to be alone.” She snapped, refusing to look at Nicole. 

“Alright.” Her friend agreed pleasantly. “But there’s still a good hundred or so yards to the carriages, let me help you with that case.” 

“No thank you.” Waverly bit out, although she desperately did want help. 

“I know many jinxes, don’t you make me use one.” Waverly heard the distinct lilt in her friend’s voice that she now recognised as flirtatious. She was just so full of conflicting emotions and her hands hurt from the case, which was heavy dammit. The tiny witch stopped, panting heavily as she finally looked up at Nicole. Without a word Nicole took one of the trunk handles and lifted it, between the two of them they were strong enough to carry the case without having to drag it across the floor, and they soon reached the carriages. Nicole hefted the trunk onto the back of one the carriages and turned awkwardly towards Nicole, who was dithering. They sat next to each other on one of the nearby benches. 

“Okay, so… I’ll start.” Nicole spoke hesitantly, wringing her hands as she always did when she was nervous. “Um, I’m sorry for being such an asshole before.”

“First you want to talk, then you don’t want to talk, then you tell _me_ to talk, so I talk-“ Waverly retorted frustratedly, and Nicole interrupted her.

“Okay… well, maybe we should figure out what exactly it is we’re talking about?” 

“Gus is selling Shorty’s… she acts like she’s not but she is. And everything around me is just changing so fast! And nobody ever asks _me_ if I’m okay with it. It’s like could everybody stand still for _one fricking minute_?” Her voice rose angrily as she vented her frustration. Nicole’s expression softened and she reached out to lay her hand gently on Waverly’s thigh. 

“Hey… It’s gonna be okay.” Nicole murmured, but Waverly just looked pointedly at the hand on her leg and then at Nicole, who flinched slightly and withdrew her touch. 

“I just screamed at you… you shouldn’t be nice to me.” 

“Yeah well, I think you’ve just been dating too many shitheads!” Nicole relaxed with a chuckle, but Waverly whipped round to face her.

“We’re not dating!” 

“I know.” Nicole’s face fell and she continued empathetically. “God, Waverly, I’d never ask you to be someone that you’re not.” 

“Good… Just don’t ask me to be anyone at all.” Waverly muttered, unable to process everything she was feeling.

“Fine.” Nicole bit out, not looking at her. 

“Fine.” She echoed, and they sat in deliberate silence for a few moments. Waverly saw Nicole open her mouth to say something before stopping herself, and after a few heartbeats Waverly felt herself give in. “Well… maybe just friends?” 

“Sure, Waverly, whatever you want.” Nicole grimaced, before starting to leave. “Have a good Christmas.” 

“Bye, Nicole.” Waverly watched her friend trudge forlornly back up to the castle to begin her three week holiday alone and had to force herself to climb up into the carriage to leave Hogwarts. 

 


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

 

On Christmas morning Waverly was woken by something loud and heavy jumping on her. 

“Wakey wakey, rise and shine sleepy head!” She groaned as her sister sang in her ear. Of course the one day of the year where Wynonna showed no interest in sleeping or being hungover was Christmas morning. She struggled to sit up with her sister still sitting on her legs, but luckily she didn’t need to move any further because Wynonna dumped her stocking on the bed. 

“Merry Christmas, Sis.” She pulled the big lump into a quick hug and then began sorting through the contents of her stocking whilst Wynonna chewed on a handful of smarties from her own. They always got a small present from Gus in their stocking, the rest of the presents exchanged within the family would go under the tree. The rest of the stocking was made up of a couple of tangerines (these always went straight back in the fruit bowl), a handful of nuts (festive but cracking them was far too much effort for the payoff), and an assortment of sweets and chocolate (the real goodies). Once they’d eaten their highly nutritious breakfast of chocolate frogs and smarties, the two girls set to work on the presents from their friends. 

Wynonna cackled gleefully as she opened her gift from Dolls; a huge pack of Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes merchandise, a pair of scarlet panties with a bra to match (which she quickly hid but Waverly saw) and a couple of novelty slogan t shirts. She promptly changed into one that said “Crazy Chick With a Gun” which was probably a reference to the time they went to a shooting range and well, long story short, they’re barred for life. From Doc she’d received a bottle of firewhiskey and another novelty t shirt, this one was just a print of a middle finger being raised. 

Waverly had received a small gift from each of her sister’s friends too, but it was Nicole’s that she looked forward to opening most. She hesitated a little at the neat little bow, recalling the shy little smile Nicole had worn when she’d pulled her aside on the last Monday of term to give her the gift. It constantly amazed her how Nicole could be so confident and yet at times, so unsure of herself. She opened the gift carefully, sweeping aside the pile of muggle sweets that cascaded out of the wrappings. She’d come back to those when she wasn’t so full of chocolate. Nicole had given her a book and a pretty silver bangle bracelet. She picked up the glossy hardback book and grinned as she realised it was McGonagall’s new biography. It wasn’t even released yet, she had no idea how Nicole had found a copy. Waverly quickly skimmed the blurb and then flicked through the first couple of pages before she noticed another present, half hidden in the discarded wrapping paper. Inside was the pair of rainbow glitter producing socks she’d looked at in Gladrags on that first trip to Hogsmeade. She quickly pulled on the socks, they were so damn soft, and she had to chuckle at the thought of Nicole sitting in the Hufflepuff dorm, unwrapping the exact same pair of socks that Waverly had gifted to her. She’d given the present to the house elves to deliver on Christmas morning, and had also given a few other pairs of funky socks, a beautifully scented candle and a pair of high quality quidditch gloves. 

The glitter socks were a big hit with Wynonna, who chased Waverly around the house tickling her little sister so she could run through all the glitter. They had a really nice Christmas, just the three Earp girls and Gus. Even Willa was being nicer to Waverly than usual. Their relationship could be a little strained sometimes, and she doubted either of them even knew why but it had been that way since childhood. After dinner they spent the evening wrapped in blankets in front of the open hearth, catching up on each other’s lives after being away at school for so many months. 

“So you’re really selling Shorty’s?” Waverly murmured to Gus. Shorty’s was the pub they lived above since they were children. It had been a part of her life for so long, to think that she’d have to leave it behind and move out of her childhood home was hard. 

“Decisions had to be made. I know you don’t believe me but everyone’s got to move on at some point in their life.” 

“But Shorty’s is my _home_.” Gus frowned at her with pity. 

“I don’t think you really believe that to be true. But listen, it’s all in the agreement, Shorty’s will never be torn down so, _when you’re 18_ , you’ll still be able to visit Shorty’s as much as you like. Hopefully less than your sister does…” Gus trailed off with a disapproving glance at Wynonna, who had made a decent dent in the firewhiskey from that morning. “I’ve also agreed that you can continue your part time work here on holidays if that is what you want.” 

“That’s not the point.” Waverly protested, not quite sure _what_ her point was, but she had one.

“But, when you’re good and ready you’ll be able to move on. Pursue whatever dream it is that you finally land on.” She dug into her pocket to pull out a slightly crumpled cheque which she handed to Waverly. “And when you do spread your wings you’ll have this to help you out.” 

“What’s this?” Waverly muttered in confusion as she scanned the cheque.

“Freedom, honey. You’ve been doing what other people want you to do for so long, now you can do whatever it is that you want.” 

“Which is what?” Waverly sighed, still disappointed. 

“Live your life!” Gus held her gaze intensely. “Some of the best things in life are the surprised it throws at us. About what we want, _who_ we want.” She winked at Waverly and stood up to get another drink. “You’ve always been an honest kid, don’t stop now.”

Waverly was quiet for the rest of the evening, deep in her thoughts. When the fire died down she realised she was alone in the living room. Gus had called it a night not long before, Willa had disappeared and Wynonna had gone to call Dolls. Waverly wished she could call Nicole, to see how she’d been the past week alone. Her father was visiting on christmas eve and christmas day so at least she’d had someone the past few days. She went up to her bedroom and sat on her bed, staring at the pile of muggle sweets she’d left there earlier from Nicole. 

Gus’s words kept going over in her mind as she absent-mindedly picked up a box of fireballs to inspect. The sweets were miniature gobstoppers, and the packet simply described them as “hot” flavour, but through the cardboard she could smell cinnamon, and figured she’d like these sweets. The next pack she picked up had no label, but looked to be from an old fashioned sweetshop and was wrapped in clear plastic and spruced up with coiled streamers. Curious, she opened the pack and breathed in the potent smell that wafted out. Aniseed. She used to hate that smell, but it’d grown on her recently. 

It made her think back to the day she met Nicole, drenched in that stupid sleeping draught that had smelled of aniseed. Her hands stilled as she remembered checking Nicole’s Amortentia essay in the library that day. Nicole had said the love potion smelled of Aniseed to her. She had never realised before but now it all clicked into place. She felt her heart race as she thought back to her own experience with Amortentia. It had smelled like bubblegum vodka, old books and dried coconut. She’d never given much thought to the dried coconut smell. She liked coconut scented things so she hadn’t really questioned it, but dried coconut smells so different from that artificial coconut scent usually used in products. Dried coconut. Like the coconut granola bars Nicole was so often eating when they hung out. How many afternoons had they spent together, finishing their homework, going through textbooks for magizoological research, just laughing and talking and escaping the pressure of their life. There were so many afternoons that Waverly could think of, so many granola wrappers hastily stowed out of sight before Hubble saw them, or being used as bookmarks or Nicole attempting to ball them up to lob them into the bin- which obviously never worked and she’d have to pick them up anyway. 

 _Some of the best things in life are the surprised it throws at us. About what we want, who we want._ Waverly stared at the aniseed sweets for a few minutes longer before her mind was made up.

 


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

 

Two days after Christmas Waverly was back at Hogwarts. She was meant to be home with Gus for another two weeks, but Willa had decided on an impromptu trip to a spa in France with Wynonna. They’d invited her, but Willa had done it in such a way that she felt so unwelcome by the offer that she declined anyway. They were going to be gone for over a week, and Gus understood that she’d be a bit bored on her own at home, so she’d agreed to let Waverly go back to school. Waverly was actually a little relieved, she’d wanted to go back anyway even before Willa’s trip, but this gave her the perfect excuse. 

As soon as she’d dumped her stuff in her dorm she set off trying to find Nicole, hoping she wasn’t in the Hufflepuff dorm. She was so eager to find her friend that she was still wearing her coat and scarf, but the castle corridors were chilly so she didn’t mind. None of the common rooms had Nicole, and she even checked the library but that was completely empty. Slightly desperate she even checked outside, but she couldn’t see that neat auburn braid anywhere, and it was freezing out so it was a long shot anyway. Her resolve was starting to weaken and she was heading back to the Ravenclaw common room when she almost bumped into Nicole. 

“Waverly! What’re you doing here?” Nicole exclaimed in surprise, and Waverly could see that she was unhappy beneath the shock. She couldn’t think of anything to say, but instead walked straight into the nearby common room and dumped her bag and coat on one of the coffee tables. “Wave?” Nicole followed her in confusion as she quickly dashed to close the curtains to the corridor.

“Excuse me.” Waverly muttered politely as she pushed Nicole aside so that she could close the door. 

“What is your problem? I don’t understand why you-” She sounded a little frustrated, probably because Waverly was acting like a crazy person. But it was now or never so she turned and launched herself up at Nicole. 

She wrapped her arms around Nicole’s neck as she stood on tip toe, barely managing to reach Nicole’s lips with her own. The other girl was so surprised that all she could do was clutch at Waverly’s forearm as the tiny brunette kissed her forcefully, backing her against a nearby sofa. They tumbled down into the squashy couch, Waverly throwing out a hand to ensure she didn’t headbutt Nicole on the way down. Nicole’s leg instinctively came up to bracket Waverly’s hips even as she broke the kiss off. 

“What happened to friends?” She panted hesitantly, and Waverly scrambled to sit upright. 

“You know what I’ve always wanted to do?” She desperately tried to collect her thoughts, to give the speech that she’d spent two days planning at home. She couldn’t remember any of it, all she could focus on was the way that Nicole’s eyes gazed at her, so big and beautifully brown, so nervous. “To parachute out of a plane at 15,000ft. To swim far, far out into the ocean, so that I can’t see the bottom anymore. To eat Geoduck!” Now Nicole looked extremely confused.

“Isn’t that the one that kinda looks like a p-“ 

“Yes!” Waverly gasped, still trying to regain her breath from the kiss. “My point is that I’ve always wanted to do things that scare me… but it’s not so easy to be brazen…” She trailed off, realising her hand rested on Nicole’s inner thigh and quickly withdrew it, flustered. “When the thing that you want, th-that scares you to death… is sitting right in front of you.” 

Waverly did not think it was possible for Nicole to look at her any more tenderly than she was now. The tall girl’s eyes softened as she murmured her response.

“I scare you?” 

“Yes!” But Waverly was smiling even as she said it. “Yes, you do. Because… I don’t wanna be friends.” Nicole’s eyes shone with hope truly for the first time. “When I think about what I want to do most in this world… It’s you.” A smile slowly spread across Nicole’s face at that, and Waverly cringed as she realised how that had come out. “Oh God, that sounded so much more romantic in my head… just er, jump in any time Nicole because I really don’t know how to do this.” 

“Oh sure you do.” Nicole drawled softly, and Waverly felt her last doubts slide away.

“Maybe I should just stop talking…” 

“See? You’re getting better at this already.” Nicole purred, pulling Waverly down towards her by her scarf. Waverly let herself be drawn close before resisting, maintaining a couple of inches between their faces. Nicole paused, letting Waverly reclaim a little space so as not to push her. 

“Maybe you should stop talking…” Waverly whispered.

“Maybe you should make me.” Nicole murmured seductively back. Waverly held the gaze for a moment longer until Nicole’s sultry stare broke off into a dorky smile before she leaned in to close the gap between them. Waverly kissed her, savouring the lingering taste of coconut before deepening the kiss. Nicole surged into motion, flipping Waverly onto her back on the sofa and rushing to follow, grinning from ear to ear. Nicole led them in hot open mouthed kisses as she pulled Waverly’s leg up to hug her hips more securely, settling between them perfectly. Waverly lost herself in the kiss, enjoying the light groan that came from Nicole’s throat, of Nicole’s hand roaming up and down her leg, of the way they were both smiling against each other’s lips. Nicole broke off the kiss for a second to caress a hand lightly across Waverly’s cheek. She opened her eyes to see Nicole beaming at her and put everything she had into saying _I’m sure,_ and Nicole shut her eyes as she tilted her chin up gently to plant one slow kiss before they returned to their frenzy. 

 


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

 

Waverly felt a flutter in her abdomen as she led Nicole into the Ravenclaw common room. Almost everyone had gone home for Christmas as usual, and she’d already scoped it out so she knew it was deserted. The butterflies were less about the fear of discovery and more to do with the hand that clutched her own, their slender fingers intertwined lightly. Chrissy and Steph were both away for the holidays so Waverly headed straight to her dorm, where she knew nobody would walk in on them. 

She hesitated in the doorway, suddenly aware that the dorms contained beds and picturing things that happened in beds. But all it took was a glance up at Nicole to know that there were no expectations between them. Waverly dropped onto the bed and looked expectantly at Nicole, who shyly perched on the edge of the mattress. 

“Come here.” Waverly giggled, rolling her eyes at her friend’s sudden cautiousness. Waverly scooted backwards to lean against the headboard, propping the pillow up behind her and patting the bed beside her. Nicole pulled her boots off, tipping a pile of glitter on the floor as she did.

“You’re wearing the socks!” Waverly cried, immediately kicking off her own slippers to reveal her matching pair.

“Hell yeah I am, these are seriously the coolest.” Nicole grinned before crawling over the bed to kiss Waverly. She sighed as she relaxed into the kiss, which was tender and light, Nicole’s body hovering above her own with far too much distance between them. Waverly deepened the kiss, sliding her hands down Nicole’s sides to rest on her hips, pulling slightly. Nicole responded eagerly, positioning herself above Waverly, one leg tangled between Waverly’s. She felt a sudden stab of anxiety and her body tensed involuntarily. It was barely noticeable, but without a word Nicole ended the kiss, brushing feather light butterfly kisses over Waverly’s cheek, across her jaw and down her neck, before easing onto the bed beside Waverly. She slid her arm around the other girl’s shoulders, tucking her neatly against her side. Waverly relaxed, exhaling deeply as she snuggled against Nicole. It was strange to think they’d been… whatever they were… for barely a week and yet it felt so natural. 

Nicole wiggled her toes, sending a small cloud of glitter into the air above their feet, and they chuckled quietly. 

“That’s never going to get old.” Waverly smiled, waving her own feet around. 

“Neither will being here beside you.” Nicole murmured, kissing Waverly’s knuckle as she felt herself blush, smiling bashfully. Nicole always said the sweetest things, it made her wish she could be more romantic. She never had to particularly bother with Champ, he wasn’t especially romantic with her and she never felt the need to initiate it either, perhaps because he was a guy. She twisted so that she could press a light kiss to Nicole’s jaw before settling back in the embrace. They chatted for a while, about whatever inane topic entered their brains, simply enjoying each other’s presence. They grew quiet for a couple of minutes, and Waverly rolled over onto her side, propping her head up on her elbow. 

“Nicole.” She started hesitantly, not sure how to phrase her question. The tall girl shuffled down the bed so that she lay on her back with her head on the pillow next to Waverly’s, and flopped her head to the side to look at her. The bed was not very wide so their faces were only inches apart, and Waverly was struck dumb for a moment as she took in all the details of Nicole’s face. 

“Yeah?” Nicole prompted her and she shook herself minutely to focus. 

“What happens when everyone’s back at school?” Nicole looked confused by the question at first, before understanding dawned. For a moment she seemed a hurt and Waverly felt a stab of uncertainty, but when Nicole spoke her voice was soft and compassionate. 

“We don’t have to tell people if you don’t want to.” 

“Are you sure?” 

“Of course.” Nicole pecked a kiss on the tip of Waverly’s nose, causing them both to smile. “I’m not even sure that _I_ want everyone to know.”

“Okay then.” Waverly relaxed, briefly wondering how she was going to tell Wynonna, or ugh, how she was going to tell _Willa_. They spent most of the day goofing around and playing games, enjoying the peace and quiet and more importantly the lack of homework. When they played Exploding Snap Nicole didn’t sulk or loudly proclaim that she let Waverly win if she lost, when they played Wizard’s Chess she didn’t whine that she was bored and give up half way through the match. Late in the afternoon their gameplay dissolved and instead they wound up lying on one of the plush sofas in the middle of the Ravenclaw common room, out in the open where anyone could walk in. Waverly wove her fingers idly through Nicole’s smooth hair, her fingertips just barely brushing the other girl’s scalp in a manner that Nicole found thoroughly enjoyable. She smiled at the way Nicole closed her eyes in bliss, and wished the moment would never end. 

“That feels really nice.” Nicole murmured, eyes still shut, and Waverly beamed. She pressed a few light kisses to Nicole’s neck, who briefly opened her eyes and grinned lazily up at Waverly, who lay semi on top of Nicole, tangled as they were on the sofa. “That feels even better.” 

Confidence growing, Waverly trailed lingering kisses down Nicole’s neck to her collar bone, chuckling as she found a sweet spot that made the other girl squirm happily. She shifted so that she was straddling Nicole, who rearranged herself so that she lay on her back on the sofa, gazing up at Waverly with such adoration that she found her mouth suddenly dry. She cradled the side of Nicole’s face as she leant forward, her hair cascading loosely around them as their lips met. Softly at first, but with a growing intensity as they found a rhythm. Nicole caught Waverly’s lower lip between her teeth gently, making Waverly’s mouth curl into a smile. She swiped her tongue lightly against Nicole’s lips, asking for access which was granted with a hum from Nicole’s throat as they deepened the kiss. Nicole’s hands settled on Waverly’s hips, encouraging her to grind down on Nicole. They were both breathing raggedly when they heard a loud thump upstairs and they jerked apart, remembering that they weren’t alone and there were a few other Ravenclaw students in the dorms. Waverly sat back, holding her breath with one hand resting on Nicole’s abdomen -which was distracting enough- as she listened tensely for any further activity from the dorms. All she could hear was Nicole’s panting, they’d got a bit too carried away. Nicole glanced at her watch quickly. 

“It’s coming up to dinner time, we’d better move somewhere a bit more discreet anyway.” Waverly agreed, casting one last wistful glance at Nicole, disappointed at the interruption but with a sigh she knew the moment was ruined now anyway. 

 


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

 

A week before spring term started, Waverly and Nicole were hanging out in one of the communal common rooms when Wynonna surprised them. She was meant to be coming back to school next weekend, but like her sister she’d had a last minute change of plans. Luckily as school was becoming busier now anyway, and there were other people in the common room, they were being slightly more discrete and secretive. When Wynonna barged in, Nicole was sat on the floor in front of one of the sofas, nestled between Waverly’s legs as she braided Nicole’s hair. Nicole was always commenting that she liked all the different ways that Waverly plaited her hair, so she was experimenting a little on Nicole, currently working on a dutch-braid-fishtail-plait combination. 

“Hey Wave.” She cried and jumped onto the sofa next to her sister. Waverly felt a little flustered but decided it was better to carry on with her braid rathe than act suspicious by stopping. “Alright Nicole?”

“Hiya Wynonna. Did you have a nice break?” Nicole was playing cool, but Waverly could feel the slight tensing of her shoulders between her knees. Wynonna, however, was completely oblivious to any kind of intimacy between them.  

“Yeah it was frigging awesome! Last night, no wait, the night before, me and Dolls went out and we accidentally stumbled on this underground illegal gambling den.” She launched into an exciting tale about their escapades which had Nicole twisting round to glance at Waverly in alarm. Waverly smirked, brows raised to say _no, this is probably not an exaggeration_. She knew her sister, and her sister knew how to get herself into trouble. Thankfully she was also incredibly adept at getting herself out of trouble, so she never worried too much. She was just glad Wynonna didn’t bring up her trip to France, she didn’t really want to talk about it. “So anyway, I just came to ask if you wanted to play some quidditch?” 

“Uh, I hate quidditch.” Waverly replied, confused. Her sister knew this, she loved watching her friends and family play but she was just terrible at the game herself. Wynonna glanced over at her, looking slightly embarrassed. 

“I was asking Nicole actually. But you should definitely come and watch, Wave.” Waverly brushed off the embarrassment, happy that her sister was showing an interest in Nicole. Wynonna had never liked Champ much, and had certainly never asked him to play quidditch with them. “If you’re in we can do four on four with some of the other seventh years.” 

“Four on four? Sure, but how exactly does that work?” Nicole smoothed her hands over the braid Waverly had just finished. “Thanks Waverly.” 

“Keeper, beater and two chasers. Doc’s half decent as a chaser, and we normally do three on three and I have to be the keeper but I’m terrible and I’ve seen you play, HaughtStuff.” Nicole blushed, grinning at the praise. 

“Who are we playing?” 

“You know Jones, right, Gryffindor keeper? And there’s also a few others, the Hussein twins in your year, and Jones’ girlfriend Mindy. Come on let’s go, I kinda left them all waiting down by the pitch.” 

“You spent twenty minutes telling us about your holiday.” Waverly pointed out sternly. 

“Yeah… probably should’ve started with the quidditch.” Wynonna scratched her head ruefully, and they headed to their respective common rooms to get changed, agreeing to meet on the pitch. 

When Waverly arrived, bundled up in too many layers to count, Wynonna and Nicole were carrying the quidditch balls trunk over to the small huddle of students on the frozen pitch. There had been a light dusting of snow that morning, but it wasn’t enough to completely cover the grass. Waverly greeted her friends, thanking Doc and Dolls for the christmas gifts she’d received from them. The group split into two teams and separated to talk tactics before the game, although Wynonna’s team were instead just goofing around. It started snowing again, and Waverly didn’t particularly fancy sopping wet hair, so she tied it in a quick bun so it’d stay tucked into her beanie. 

“Oh my shit, is that a love bite?” Wynonna gasped, giggled as she spotted Waverly’s exposed neck. Too late, she remembered why she’d left her hair down today, and she mentally kicked herself even whilst she was panicking at what to say to that. “Please, please, please tell me you’re not back with Champ!” Waverly threw a helpless glance at Nicole, not knowing what to say and begging her to help in some way. Dolls was looking between them curiously but he kept his mouth shut. 

“I have it on good authority that it’s not from Champ.” Nicole smirked, and Wynonna heaved a massive sigh of relief. 

“Oh thank goodness. Who’s the lucky guy then?” 

“None of your beeswax.” Waverly snapped, desperately trying to think of a new topic of conversation. 

“Aww come on, don’t be like that! Hey Nicole, who is he?” 

“Sorry Earp, these lips are sealed.” She mimed zipping her lips, but the whole time she had a devilish gleam in her eye as she grinned at Waverly, who had turned beetroot. 

“I’m only asking because, as the big sister, it’s my job to be prepared to kick his ass, if he hurts her.” She hit her beater’s bat threateningly against her palm, and Nicole had the good grace to look worried for a moment. “If it’s Champ I swear I’m gonna have to knock some sense into the boy.” 

“This new one is a _keeper_ , I’d say anyway.” Nicole was smirking again now, and Waverly had to try not to laugh at the cockiness. She decided to join in the fun.

“Trust me Wynonna, I’m not gonna say who it is but they’re… _hot._ ” The two of them were nearly giggling at the secret puns, whilst Wynonna frowned as she tried to think of who it might be. Dolls cleared his throat, looking a little embarrassed, and they sobered quickly.

“Erm so anyway, shall we play?” Nicole suggested, distracting Wynonna with the thought of quidditch. They kicked off whilst Waverly made herself comfortable, spreading out a thick blanket on the snow which would probably end up soaked through anyway. She pulled a couple of jars out of her satchel and conjured flames in them, strategically placing them to keep herself warm. Despite the smaller teams the game was no less fun to watch than a school match. Their little games had only one real rule, which was that “anything goes”. They didn’t play dangerously, but the fouls they managed to come up with were ridiculous. Every other minute somebody would transfigure the quaffle into a literal hot potato, causing the receiving player to yelp and drop it much to the other student’s entertainment. Wynonna transfigured Jones’ broomstick into a mop so that he dropped ten feet before he managed to change it back, and Dolls made good use of the open goals to score. Jones jinxed Doc, forcing him to make a hasty landing to clear the excessive piles of dandruff falling form his hair that had Wynonna roaring with laughter. Nobody was even keeping track of the score, but Waverly had a feeling that Wynonna’s team was winning, though that may just be wishful thinking on Nicole’s part. 

Poor Nicole was a little overwhelmed by their antics, but she seemed to be enjoying herself, and gave as good as she got. The other team seemed a little unwilling to foul or jinx her as much as the others, probably because they didn’t know her as well. One of the Hussein twins, Nafees, tried to jinx Doc who dodged and it hit the unsuspecting keeper square in the face. Her head appeared to transform into a pumpkin, and Waverly felt her heart race as she watched Nicole panic, hands flying up to frantically pat the pumpkin where her head should be, before she semi-crash landed on the pitch below. Waverly raced over, followed closely by Wynonna’s team whilst their opponents paused play and held back, Nafees looking a little sheepish. Waverly recognised the _Melofors_ jinx, and knew that Nicole’s head hadn’t actually turned into a pumpkin, it was just encased in one, so she wasn’t surprised to hear muffled yelling emanating from the large squash. 

“Hang on Nicole, we’ll get you out of there.” Waverly gripped Nicole’s hand as she reassured the taller girl. In her peripheral vision she noticed Wynonna whipping out her wand and knew what she was about to attempt. “Wait, careful!” She shrieked, raising her hand to block Wynonna’s approach. Her sister could sometimes be a little heavy handed with her spells and she didn’t want her to blast Nicole’s face clean off. She drew her own wand and murmured the spell herself. “ _Reducto_.” 

A chunk of pumpkin was blasted away from Nicole’s head which allowed them to prise apart the rest of the shell. She gasped for breath as fresh air reached her face and Waverly smiled, picking seeds and gloop out of Nicole’s hair. Nicole raised a thumbs up at Nafees, who looked relieved that she wasn’t upset, and the rest of the team flew off ready to continue play. 

“Ugh, I’m a mess.” Nicole grimaced, eliciting a dry chuckle from Waverly. 

“You’ve certainly looked better.” She pulled the last few large blobs of pumpkin innards out of Nicole’s hair, her hand lingering in the auburn locks. 

“Oh yeah, like when?” Nicole smirked, and Waverly felt her mouth go dry, unable to answer. “Like when I’m lying beneath you on a Ravenclaw couch?” She blushed at the memory, as Nicole continued, dropping her voice to a sultry whisper. “Just kidding… I know you prefer me on top.” 

“Oi Waverly, you can fix her hair later. Lets play, Haught!” Wynonna bellowed and they were startled out of their moment. Waverly flushed red as she realised her hand was still on Nicole’s face, and quickly jerked her arm away. Nicole winked and mounted her broom, zipping off back to her goalposts. 

“Pull yourself together, Earp.” Waverly muttered to herself, willing the butterflies in her stomach to disperse. Play continued, and as soon as Nafees made the mistake of trying to score against Nicole, she exacted her revenge with a well timed _Levicorpus_ jinx. He yelped in dismay as he was yanked from his broomstick, dangling by his ankle in midair, a few feet from the ground. 

“Help me out, guys?” He called, and before his teammates could rescue him Wynonna grinned deviously and flew over.

“Sure thing! _Liberacorpus_!” She cried the counter-jinx and he fell in a heap on the pitch below as she flew over to Nicole to high five. When they all eventually tired themselves out they declared it a draw as they hurried inside out of the cold and Doc managed to procure some butter beer and hot cocoa to warm them up. 

 


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24 

 

"Bobo must’ve had a shitty Christmas.” Nicole muttered, picking up the books he had just knocked out of her hands before storming off without a word. Waverly discretely linked her fingers through Nicole’s for a moment before distancing herself, aware that the corridor was filling with students. It was only the first week of term and Waverly already missed the winter break. It wasn’t the lack of classes like most students missed, it was the time she’d spent with Nicole, just the two of them, not having to worry about people watching or staring. The corner of Nicole’s mouth quirked up in a sad smile as she acknowledged Waverly’s support, and they carried on towards charms class. 

“We need to find a way to teach that asshat a lesson.” Waverly grumbled, but Nicole merely shrugged pragmatically. 

“What do you propose we do, hex him in the middle of the corridor? In front of all the students, the teachers?” 

“Well he’d deserve it.” 

“Of course he would, but nobody else would see that. They’ve seen him what, call me a few names, bump into me once or twice, hug me? We’re the ones that would get in trouble, maybe even expelled- you know how much influence his dad has.” 

“You’re right.” Waverly sighed, pouting at the unfairness of it all. She knew the real reason Nicole wasn’t so bothered by it all was because she was the target. If it was anyone else that Bobo was bothering she’d be on him in a flash.

“Hey, hey, don’t frown… it’s gonna be okay.” Nicole smiled, pulling gently on Waverly’s arm to halt her. When Waverly didn’t cheer up Nicole looked at her earnestly. “I’m not worried, okay, and you don’t need to worry either.” 

Waverly felt the weight lift, just a little, and Nicole smirked as she saw the change. 

“I see that little baby smile, stop trying to fight it.” Waverly rolled her eyes in exasperation, but couldn’t stop the silly grin spreading across her face.

“You just don’t want me moping around looking ugly.” There was a slight edge to her tone. 

“No… you’re just as beautiful either way.” Nicole beamed. “But when you’re happy it just makes everything else infinitely better.” Waverly felt her heart melt a little, and Nicole glanced around furtively before stealing a kiss the moment the last person in the corridor passed them. “So I’m just being selfish really.” 

“Oh you sweet talker you.” Waverly protested but she couldn’t stop smiling, not even when the Charms professor set them a four foot essay on turning vinegar into wine. Nicole teased that the parchment would be nearly as tall as Waverly. 

Throughout the next month Bobo increased the intensity of his reign of terror. He seemed to be everywhere, he followed them between lessons, and even when they got out of class early he’d catch up with them at their next classroom. Waverly later discovered that Champ had managed to get a copy of Nicole’s timetable to the bully, which was how he always knew where to be. He’d knock Nicole’s belongings to the floor, bump her, jostle them, call her names. His favourite thing to do was to hold a door for Nicole, insist that she go through it first, and the moment she tried to pass the doorway he’d go for it at the same time, often crushing Nicole against the doorframe painfully. He’d also become more aggressive with them, and would regularly try to trip Nicole over, or barge into her shoulder to knock her against walls or other students. She was generally quite adept at staying on her feet when tripped, but he had managed to send her sprawling on the floor several times, and Waverly had seen bruises on her arms and elbows from the hard stone walls. Waverly agonised over telling somebody about it, but Bobo was always so careful when it came to his actions. He mostly left them alone if there were too many people around, but the moment backs were turned he’d find some sly way to bother them. 

As February arrived their situation worsened. Hufflepuff had their next match coming up and if they beat Gryffindor they’d have a good shot at winning the trophy. As a result, Rogers had them training at every single opportunity, and it was taking a toll on Nicole. Between the constant practices, sixth year classes and homework she barely even had time to sleep, let alone eat. Waverly was smuggling food up to the library as much as possible, but Nicole had asked her to stop after she was kicked out of the library for the third time that month. She couldn’t stop worrying though, Bobo’s tormenting combined with the lack of sleep and sustenance was taking a serious toll on Nicole. She looked, quite frankly, exhausted. She had dark circles under her eyes, her hair was often unkempt and Waverly was sure she’d lost weight. 

A few days before the big match Waverly sat up in the Entrance Hall, waiting for Hufflepuff to finish their practice. It was nearly 8pm before the team appeared, bedraggled and sodden from the icy rain, though most of them in good spirits. Their practice must have gone well, but Nicole trudged forlornly at the rear of the group, looking pale and tired. 

“Nicole.” Waverly murmured after the team passed, startling the tall girl out of her reverie. She was pleased to see that Nicole’s mouth twitched in a small smile that warmed in her stark eyes, just barely. The moment they were alone she wrapped her arms around Nicole in a hug, simultaneously trying to embrace her tightly and gently so she wouldn’t break her, she seemed so fragile. Nicole rested her face briefly against Waverly’s head, relaxing into the hug for a moment before she tried to draw back.

“I’m all dirty and smelly.” She protested weakly and Waverly chuckled, squeezing her tighter. 

“I don’t mind.” 

“Well I do! How am I going to seduce my girl if she’s seen me like this- muddy and stinking of wet grass.” 

“Oh? _Your_ girl?” Waverly repeated coyly, eyebrow raised. Nicole grinned properly this time.

“Yeah, _my_ girl.” She pecked a kiss on Waverly’s forehead and succeeded in shrugging out of her arms. Waverly let her, but only because she was already pulling Nicole towards one of the prefect bathrooms. 

“First of all we’re going to get you cleaned up. I’m talking a luxury bath with all the bath soaps you could ever possibly want. Whilst you’re doing that, I am going to get you some dinner. No arguments missy, you’ve missed every breakfast, three lunches and a dinner this week. You need to eat or you’re going to waste away.”

“Where are you going to get food from? Dinner ended like an hour ago.” Nicole asked, perplexed. 

“I finally persuaded Doc to tell me where the kitchens are. The house elves there are super helpful, you mention that you’re peckish and they’ll practically start force feeding you. Speaking of, what are you team doing about dinner?”

“They all had dinner early.”

“But you didn’t because you were in the library, tsk.” Waverly clucked disapprovingly. They reached the statue of Boris the Bewildered, which marked the entrance to the prefect’s bathroom. 

“Dolls told me the password but he warned that it’ll change soon. Spotted Dick.” Nicole turned to look at her in surprise even as the door opened. “It’s a traditional British dessert. It’s quite tasty actually.” 

“I’ll take your word for it.” Nicole muttered, following her into the bathroom. They both halted at the sight of the opulent bathroom. It was more like a royal swimming pool than a school bathroom. 

“Now I see why it cost me so much to get the password…” Waverly mumbled as she stared around in awe. She turned on a few of the taps, unable to discern any kind of system but eventually finding hot water amongst the various bubble baths. 

“What did it cost you?” Nicole asked curiously as she dumped her wet robes and swilled her fingers through the rapidly filling bathtub to test the temperature. 

“A highly embarrassing photo of Wynonna when she was eight. She is going to kick my ass when she finds out Dolls has it.” 

“Risking your sibling’s wrath for me? I’m touched.” Nicole smirked. “What was so embarrassing about the photo?” 

“Well for starters my sister was not a cute eight year old, puberty worked wonders for her. But the main thing is that she went to school dressed as a powdered donut. She has never lived it down.” Nicole stood awkwardly, stripped down to her underarmour and leggings, shivering slightly. Waverly felt herself becoming flustered. “Um… anyway so I’m going to uh, leave you to it. I’ll be back in thirty moments, uh minutes, yeah… um, bye now.” She stumbled out just as an amused looking Nicole stripped down to her sports bra. Outside the bathroom she took a quick moment to collect herself, and forced herself to head off to the kitchens. 

About thirty minutes later she dithered outside the prefects bathrooms, wanting to go in to see Nicole, but also worried that Nicole might not be dressed. After a few minutes nervously deliberating she decided she’d have to go for it because it was coming up to after hours so they didn’t have a lot of time. Thankfully Nicole was sitting cross legged beside the bath, dressed in the pyjamas Waverly had left for her and towel drying her hair. 

“Hey.” Nicole grinned, looking so refreshed and happy for the first time in weeks it made Waverly’s heart hurt a little bit. She quickly spread out their mini banquet, courtesy of the house elves. 

“We’re gonna eat in the bathroom?” 

“Yeah, it’s nearly nine already so we’ll have to hide out in here. I thought you’d be done with quidditch a lot earlier to be honest.” 

“Were you waiting long? I hope I didn’t keep you from your homework, you’re taking more classes than I am.” Nicole frowned worriedly, and she found it amazing that her friend could still worry about others even with everything she had on her plate right now. 

“It’s fine, I don’t have to do a ridiculous amount of quidditch every week so I’ve kept on top of it.”

“I still need to do that essay on Porlocks for Lovegood, and that Ancient Runes decipher worksheet.

“What you need is a night off.” Waverly smiled, cutting off Nicole’s protest before she could get the words out. “Copy my Ancient Runes sheet, it’ll be fine. And the essay can wait till the weekend, we don’t have Care of Magical Creatures until monday. You need time to rest, don’t fight me on this one because you know I’m right.” 

“Speaking of weekends… would you like to go somewhere nice for Valentine’s next weekend?” Nicole murmured shyly.

“Where were you thinking of?” Waverly beamed, to which Nicole looked a little embarrassed. 

“Well I was hoping that you might help there actually. I don’t know Hogsmeade too well, but I definitely do not want to go to Madam Puddifoots.” They both chuckled at that.

“Definitely not. There’s a nice little Italian restaurant on the edge of town, we could try that? It wont really be the same going at lunchtime but well, we have to be back at the castle for five.”

“It sounds perfect.” 

They spent the next hour recharging their batteries by just enjoying the solitude, laughing and joking without the worry hanging over them both. They called it a night much earlier than Waverly would have liked, but she could tell Nicole was knackered and needed to sleep. She made Nicole promise to go straight to bed, instead of her usual routine of then staying up to do all the work she’d been unable to finish because of quidditch. They successfully made it back to their respective common rooms without being spotted by a teacher, and Waverly positively skipped up to bed, feeling like she could float away. 

 


	25. Chapter 25

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for not updating this in a long time. I ran out of time to work on my writing, so now I'm just going to stick to short one shots where possible. I've added 3 chapters that I wrote during the summer and I realise this is leaving it incomplete but just wanted to be straight with you.

Chapter 25

 

The stormy weather continued onto the day of the quidditch match, and it was a less than enthusiastic herd of students that made their way down to the stands. Waverly was bundled up against the cold and sporting a very attractive plastic poncho for the rain. By the time she was half way to the pitch she realised that poncho was about as functional as it was fashionable. Instead of keeping her dry it simply directed all the rain straight onto her jeans, and the neck gaped enough that her front was soon soaked through. She was excited to see Nicole and her sister play, but by the time she took her seat she was already hoping for a short match. 

The players filed out onto the pitch, their brightly coloured robes soon splattered with raindrops. Waverly watched them take up their starting positions, her face screwed up against the wind and rain that mercilessly battered the spectators. The stands were a lot more subdued than usual, as barely anyone had bothered bringing banners or decorations. The last soggy banner in Waverly’s box was ripped away by the wind, but the owner didn’t seem to care too much, they were busy trying to wrap themselves better in their own plastic poncho. Waverly was wearing the Gryffindor hat her sister had bought her when she’d first made the team in third year. She insisted that Waverly wear the ridiculous thing to every game as if it were some kind of lucky charm. Waverly always put up a token struggle as she protested but secretly she believed in the superstition too. This was the first match that she’d hesitated about wearing it, she wasn’t sure who she wanted to win. In the end she’d decided to wear it, but she also had Nicole’s Hufflepuff scarf in her bag. She’d planned on wearing it but had chickened out at the last minute, but not enough to completely leave it behind in her dorm. 

The game kicked off and within minutes both teams were soaked through. Waverly had never seen Nicole looking so small and bedraggled, hunched over her broomstick as she guarded the goalposts. And if Nicole looked small, Wynonna looked like a drowned rat. Neither player let it get to them though, and several Hufflepuffs were rubbing sore limbs from Wynonna’s well placed bludgers, and Gryffindor were yet to score against Nicole. Unfortunately Hufflepuff weren’t doing too well either, with the rain-slick quaffle being dropped and fumbled constantly. Ordinarily both teams would be looking to win by the highest goal different possible to secure their spot at the top of the table, but Waverly was sure that both seekers were desperately trying to find the snitch so the game would finish. Rogers called a time-out so they could re-group and on her way over to the team huddle, Nicole detoured over to the edge of the box Waverly was in. 

“Nice hat!” She shouted over the gale to Waverly, who looked contrite. “I noticed my scarf has gone missing, you wouldn’t happen to know anything about that would you?” Nicole winked, pausing for a moment to enjoy Waverly’s flustered expression before she zoomed off to her teammates. Nobody had paid attention to their exchange so she dug the mustard yellow scarf out of her satchel, clutching it to her lap. She worried the wool as she tried to make her mind up, but the fabric was getting wet from the rain so she thought to hell with it and wrapped it loosely around her neck. As play resumed and Nicole sped back to the goalposts she beamed at Waverly as she spotted the ugly scarf. 

Waverly was relieved when Hufflepuff caught the snitch and the game was over. The stands immediately started emptying, the cheers somewhat half hearted. She left the stands and hung back as the swarm of students swept by, eagerly anticipating warm showers and dry clothes. As the last few students were filing past, Waverly gave up on waiting to congratulate Nicole, who had not emerged from the changing rooms. She had assumed that they would not bother changing after the game and would instead go straight to the showers, but she was cold and wet so she trudged up to the castle with the stragglers. She was nearly at the entrance when a pair of wet, strong arms encircled her waist gently, making her jump before she realised and relaxed against the taller girl’s chest for a brief moment. Conscious of the people around, she pulled away and Nicole immediately released her and instead strode by her side, grinning. 

“Has anyone ever told you that you can totally pull off the plastic poncho and dirty yellow scarf look?”

“No…” Waverly replied, starting to smile.

“Good. Because they’d be lying to your face.” Nicole smirked and dodged a playful swipe from her girlfriend. 

“Oh do be quiet. I’m wearing these for you, y’know.” Waverly retorted, but couldn’t stop the silly grin from spreading over her face. “Well done, by the way, you played spectacularly.” 

“It’s all thanks to these bad boys.” Nicole wiggled her fingers, showing off the keeper gloves that she still wore. They were the expensive professional ones that Waverly had given her for Christmas. “They have so much grip, I don’t think I dropped the quaffle more than twice. So thank you so much for these, you’re amazing.” 

Waverly beamed at the compliment, feeling the redness creeping over her face in embarrassment. 

“It’s not problem at all. Come on, let’s hurry up inside, we need to get you out of those wet robes, you’re sodden.” She meant that Nicole should go inside and get changed, but she could tell from the suggestive smirk that immediately appeared on Nicole’s face that her words had come out heavier than intended. 

“Are you propositioning me, Waverly Earp?” 

“Inside, now!” Waverly rolled her eyes and gently pushed the tall girl through the doors to the Entrance Hall as Nicole laughed. 

“Okay okay, I’m going, I’m going. Trust me, I’m more than happy to get out of these wet clothes, and speaking of which… you look pretty wet too.” 

Waverly ignored the potential double meaning, blushing and carried on pragmatically. 

“I’m dying for a nice warm shower, and I definitely need to get out of these damp clothes.”

“You know… I’m a helpful person… I could give you a hand with that.” Nicole commented lightly, a definite lilt to her tone. Waverly felt her stomach warm, accompanied by that pleasant fluttering of butterflies that Nicole so often inflicted on her.

“I think I can manage just fine, thanks.” She called over her shoulder with a smirk as she turned away to Ravenclaw tower, to which Nicole cocked an eyebrow with that stupid shit-eating grin of hers. 

“Are you sure? Because I seem to remember you having difficulties with your robes once before.” 

Waverly shook her head with a chuckle, thinking back to that that morning in the potions dungeon so many months ago. She left Nicole to get changed and enjoy the Hufflepuff celebrations, already envisioning the nice hot bath she’d be having- though perhaps a cold shower was more appropriate. 

 


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26

 

“Um Nicole, the restaurant is actually that way.” Waverly gestured vaguely towards the other side of Hogsmeade. 

“I know, this is a shortcut.” Nicole reassured, linking her arm through Waverly’s elbow to pull her in a direction that Waverly really did not believe was right. 

“I’m not sure how walking in the opposite direction can be a shortcut…” Waverly muttered, perplexed. 

“Do you trust me, Waves?” Nicole teased.

“Of course, but-“ 

“Then have a little faith!” 

They trudged through the dirty snow through the residential part of Hogsmeade village. There were no other students around, so Waverly detangled her arm from Nicole’s, reaching instead for her gloved hand. The tall girl smiled at their entwined fingers, pulling Waverly closer to her side. Valentine’s day had been preceded by a day of light snow showers, but the snowfall had stopped and instead just left a brittle coldness that froze the muddy snow-slush beneath their feet. It was slippery, and more than once Waverly felt her feet slide out beneath her and was grateful for Nicole’s steady grip. By the time they reached the edge of town Waverly was getting slightly annoyed. She was cold and her legs were starting to hurt from tensing against the treacherous pathway. She halted, pulling Nicole back with a pout.

“Okay this is definitely the wrong way for the restaurant, we’re going to miss our reservation.” 

“We’re not going to miss our reservation, because I didn’t book anything.” Nicole smiled shyly. Waverly frowned in confusion, Nicole had said she’d sort out the reservations, if they hadn’t booked they might not get in. The restaurant wasn’t particularly amazing but on Valentine’s there would be a whole school full of couples fighting over the tables. 

“Isn’t that going to be a problem for us?” 

“It probably would be, if we were going to the restaurant.” Nicole replied innocently, a smirk playing on the edge of her lips. “Come on, it’s just a little bit further.” She tugged Waverly’s arm gently, trying to lead her to who knows where. She dug her heels in.

“Where are we going?” 

“You’ll see soon!” Nicole laughed, trying to pull her again but she stomped her foot lightly, pouting.

“Please just tell me, Nicole!” The red head rolled her eyes with a smile.

“Okay I’ll tell you, but can we carry on walking as we do? I’ve got a tight schedule to work with.”

“Fine.” Waverly grumbled, but followed Nicole obediently. 

“We’re going to Canada.” 

“ _What_?” She screeched in shock. 

“Canada. You know, the big country north of America.”

“I know what Canada is! How are we getting there?” 

“Disapparition. You can learn and get licensed when you’re sixteen in Canada, so I’ve been doing it for a while already. Plus I’m eighteen already so I wont have the trace on me.” 

“You’re eighteen? Your birthday is next week though?” 

“Actually it’s today. I wanted to surprise you so I just moved the date along a little bit.” 

“You are… unbelievable…” Waverly stammered, lost for words. Nicole seemed a little tongue tied herself, which was remarkable.

“Unbelievably good or bad?” She twisted at her fingers anxiously, eliciting a smile from Waverly. It was nice to know that she could have this effect on Nicole, who was normally talking circles around her with her smooth lines and cocky flirting. 

“Unbelievably good.” She reached up on tip toes, pulling Nicole down for a kiss. Rejuvenated, Nicole beamed at Waverly.

“I think this is probably far enough.” She held out her arm for Waverly to hold onto for side-along apparition and winked cheekily. “Now, as I’m sure you’re aware, you need to hold onto me tightly.” 

“Ha, and I’m sure you were well aware when you planned this.” She clutched Nicole’s bicep tightly, slightly less able to appreciate its definition as she was hit with a bout of nerves. Canada was a long way to apparate to…

“You ready?” Nicole murmured, holding her gaze steadily and Waverly felt calm instantly wash over her. She nodded determinately, and Nicole pressed a quick kiss to her temple before she took a deep breath and turned on the spot. Waverly endured the unpleasant sensation of being forced through time and space until she felt her feet slam into the ground. They each gulped in fresh air, and before she could take in her surroundings Nicole was in front of her, checking her thoroughly for any sign of splinching. 

“I’m okay.” She reassured the her, touched by the worry in her clear brown eyes. Nicole ignored her, checking every damn fingernail until she was satisfied that no part of Waverly had been left behind. 

“Sorry, I was just worried about the apparition. I practiced it a bunch of times to be sure, the first few times I disapparated between continents I splinched. Only minor stuff, but I wouldn’t want to risk it with you.” 

“I never noticed anything?” Nicole pulled off her beanie and parted the hair at the base of her skull to reveal a small bald patch.

“I’m just glad it wasn’t at the front. Also I’m missing a few toenails. But anyway, enough about my gross feet. Today’s your special day and we need to get going.” 

“Speaking of… why did you ask me if I wanted to go to the Italian if you had this planned instead?” 

“Well I wanted to surprise you of course. I don’t wanna go for two for one pizza buffet lunch on Valentines. I want to do normal first date stuff, like going to the movies or ice skating.” 

“Um, ice skating is definitely not normal first date stuff.” 

“It is where I’m from. Have you never been ice skating?” Nicole asked in amazement. Waverly shook her head in trepidation. 

“I mean, they have ice skating in England… it’s just not particularly common. There’s no rinks near my town either.” 

“Well then, I am so happy that your first time will not be in some stuffy artificial ice rink. We’re doing the real deal, baby.” They were marching through snow that was nearly knee deep in places so they fell into a companionable silence as they saved their breath. By the time they reached the top of the hill they were climbing they were both panting heavily, and Waverly could feel a sheen of sweat drying on her back. 

“Oh.” Waverly gasped as they crested the hilltop. Before them the ground dipped down steeply in a pebbled ravine leading to a small frozen lake. Because of the time difference sunrise nearly finishing, and the few soft clouds dotted across the sky were stained pink against the bright blue sky. “It’s beautiful.” 

“You know what else is beautiful?” Nicole grinned, and Waverly wagged a finger at her.

“Don’t even!” 

“Fine.” She grumbled. “It was too easy anyway.” Nicole led the way down into the ravine, hands hovering over Waverly protectively, lest she slip on the uneven terrain. Beside the lake Nicole pulled a large wicker picnic basket out of a shrub and started laying out a thick blanket. 

“How did you even discover this place?” She murmured in awe as she took in the view. Across the lake a sturdy tree leaned out over the ice, devoid of all leaves but garnished with a thick knotted rope. 

“I used to live about three miles in that direction.” Nicole gestured vaguely, pulling two sets of ice skates out of the basket. She glanced up, following the direction of Waverly’s gaze. “The rope swing was my cousin Danny’s handiwork. She hung it nearly ten years ago and it still hasn’t failed. The water is much deeper at the end, don’t worry this side is only shallow. Even if the ice cracks you’ll just get a wet leg at worst. Which is highly unpleasant I can tell you from past experience, but not life threatening.”

“Okay but you’re maybe forgetting the fact that I don’t know how to ice skate…” Waverly muttered, embarrassed. She could already see how hard Nicole had worked for this day, and whilst she was extremely touched she didn’t want to let her friend down by messing up. Nicole sensed her mood and stood, pulling her into a gentle hug. 

“I’ll teach you. It’s not as hard as it looks. And there’s no one around to laugh if you fall okay?” She tucked a strand of hair behind Waverly’s ear, so tenderly that she felt her heart melt a little. “If you don’t want to that’s perfectly fine, it’s a beautiful day, I have a picnic and we can go for a walk, there’s a town a couple miles away. No one knows you here, we don’t have to hide.” 

“I’m sorry… I know you don’t like hiding us at school.” 

“I understand though. I’ll wait as long as you need.” Nicole murmured, cupping her palm to Waverly’s face as she pressed a kiss to her temple. 

“Thank you.”

“Have you thought about telling Wynonna?” Nicole asked quietly and she felt her heart twist anxiously. She had thought about it. She’d thought about it a lot. But it honestly terrified her so much. The longer she put it off, the worse it got as well, because how would Wynonna react to her keeping such a secret for so long. 

“I’ve thought about it.” She mumbled, not wanting to start an argument. But to her relief Nicole simply gave her a quick squeeze and reached for a pair of skates. 

“Thank you. Now put on the damn skates, Earp.” 

 


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27 

 

“We need to hurry, we’re gonna miss curfew.” Nicole said as they power-walked through the streets of Hogsmeade. It was late afternoon, coming up to five. They had about fifteen minutes to get to the carriages before they’d be locked out of the school and in a shit-ton of trouble. Waverly struggled to keep up with Nicole’s long strides, partly due to her little legs but mostly because she still felt dazed from their date. 

The whole day had been perfect. She had ice skated. On an honest to goodness lake. In honest to goodness Canada. Nicole had been a wonderful teacher. Holding her up to begin with as she learned how to balance, making sure she wouldn’t fall. She was patient when she tried to convince Waverly she could skate on her own, but she hadn’t wanted to let go of her stable guardian in case she fell. She’d been so determined not to let go that Nicole had lost her own balance and fallen with a thud onto the hard unforgiving ice, but instead of yelling or being upset the tall girl had simply laughed and clambered back to her feet. 

Soon after Nicole’s tumble she’d finally released her vicelike grip on Nicole and tentatively struck out on her own. The whole time Nicole had stayed close, ready to catch her at every wobble, and guiding her in turns and swirls. Waverly had even successfully pulled off a few wobbly pirouettes and jumps, thanks to her skill as a dancer. After they grew tired of skating they’d had lunch when Nicole had pulled a phone out of the basket. She really had planned everything, Waverly hadn’t even asked how she’d got that there. But they now had close to a hundred selfies and pictures of their day which Nicole had promised to get printed, even if they would only be stationary muggle photos. 

“Shit, we’re gonna be late.” Nicole muttered again, wearing her usual twitchy expression that she so often displayed at the thought of rulebreaking. Waverly broke out into a jog, dragging Nicole who easily caught up with her. They were soon running flat out through the village, still too far from Hogsmeade. They had visited a local muggle village after their skating, Nicole taking her to all of the historical spots she could think of, some of which even had magical history too, like the birthplace of Winnifred Wilds, a fifteenth century witch who had invented several useful spells. 

“Hold up a moment, I’m not an athlete like you!” Waverly panted as she started to fall behind slightly. Nicole instantly matched her pace. They made it back to the school with only minutes to spare, and were eyed disapprovingly by the caretaker as they passed the entrance. Once they’d caught their breath Waverly gazed up at Nicole adoringly. 

“Thank you so much for today. It was wonderful.” 

“You think we’re done? Uh-uh, there’s more.” Nicole grinned. “Meet me at the room of requirement in an hour. Wear something nice.” With that she was gone, leaving Waverly wondering how she had been so lucky. She stumbled back to the Ravenclaw dorms to get showered, frantically scanning her wardrobe mentally to plan what she was going to wear. 

More or less an hour later, okay definitely more as she’d had trouble picking her dress, Waverly approached the room of requirement nervously. Nicole was nowhere to be seen, but as she paced the corridor thinking about Nicole, the door appeared and she entered cautiously.

Inside, the room was dimly lit by the candles Nicole was in the middle of lighting. She turned around, beaming at Waverly’s arrival. Her smile faltered a little as she took in Waverly’s appearance, sweeping her from head to foot before she found her voice.

“You… are a vision.” She blushed scarlet at words, but more at the tone of awe they were delivered with. She couldn’t stop smiling even as she returned the compliment.

“You look beautiful, Nicole. We need to get dressed up more often.” 

“I’ll say.” Nicole continued to gaze at her as they fell quiet for a moment before the taller girl seemed to pull herself together. She cleared her throat and drew a chair away from the small table in the middle of the room, gesturing for Waverly to sit. She smoothed her dress as she sat, taking in the room around her in amazement. It as exactly like she’d walked into the fanciest restaurant she could think of, except that there was just one table and no waiters. There was even a four string quartet enchanted to play in the corner. Heaps of flowers garnished the edges of the room, taking slightly away from the elegant atmosphere but it was a touch that Waverly knew Nicole had added just for her. Waverly noticed a large sofa against the wall and bit back a chuckle. 

Nicole opened a bottle, pouring them each a glass. 

“It’s just grape juice, tastes nice though.” 

“It’s perfect.” Waverly raised her glass, clinking it against Nicole’s. “Cheers.” 

The house elves had provided them with a three course meal, magically kept warm beneath silver platters. When they finished eating Waverly leaned back in her chair with a small groan, holding her stomach. 

“I’m so full, I could throw up.” 

“Well you didn’t _have_ to scrape the plate clean…” Nicole teased, but Waverly was too stuffed to do anything more than stick her tongue out impudently. 

“Normally, I’d get Netflix on for a bit and we’d watch a movie or binge some TV, allow you to recover from that food coma. But since Hogwarts is a party pooper and is stuck in the 16th century or whatever we’ll have to improvise.” 

“Normally?” Waverly interrupted. “Wasn’t Johnson your first significant other?” 

“Well I’ve had a long time to plan my first date” Nicole retorted, always with an answer to everything. “Anyway, I know just the thing to help that food go down.” She stood and held out a hand to help Waverly up. She resisted at first, but Nicole chuckled and pulled her up. “Trust me this’ll help.”

Nicole slid one hand around Waverly’s waist, grasping her hand lightly in her own. 

“You know how to dance?” Waverly asked in surprise. Somehow she’d never pictured the tall, athletic girl dancing. Nicole looked embarrassed. 

“Well, I can waltz. But other than that not really. I know the basics though.” She started them off, turning in a slow circle, and Waverly quickly took control of the dance. Leading them in a gentle rhythm, she smiled when Nicole occasionally stepped wrong, treading on her feet once or twice. 

“Sorry.” Nicole whispered, but Waverly shook her head, grinning as she quickly showed her the correct way. 

“I really really want to see your waltz some time.” 

“Of course.” Nicole agreed, and Waverly leaned into Nicole as their dance dwindled to swaying. She tilted her head against Nicole’s chest, tucked under her chin neatly. She felt herself being backed up, and was not at all surprised when the backs of her legs hit the sofa and she dropped down onto the plush fabric, pulling Nicole with her. 

 


End file.
